The Game
by DownwiththeSupernatural
Summary: Dean awakens to find himself involved in a dangerous psycho's game.
1. Chapter 1

Hi all, here's my latest story. And I know that I haven't finished "Legion" as of yet, but rest assured it's not forgotten. It will be finished, but I'm just having a bit of writers block on it right now. Anywho, hope you like this one and I look forward to any feedback ya'll might have for me! So please R&R! Oh, and this story isn't exactly involving anything that is Supernatural. You'll understand after you read the first chappie though, so on to the story!

Title:The Game

Genre:Drama/Horror/Angst-all those good things!

Characters:Dean and Sam of course.(It's mostly Dean-centric, but has a healthy dose of Sammy)and some OC's.

Rating:PG13(for now)Rating will go up when it gets more graphic.

Summary:Dean finds himself an unwilling participant in a deranged game of survival.

Disclaimer:I own nothing to do with Supernatural.

The Game

Ch.1

"Son of a bitch Sam. Can you please turn down that damn TV."Dean muttered as he slowly awoke. His head was pounding, and the noise from whatever Sam was watching was only making it worse.

That's what you get for drinking so much dumb ass, he chastised himself.

His brother obviously didn't hear him though, either that or he just chose to ignore him, because the crying that had roused Dean from his slumber continued, and as he reluctantly opened his eyes he wondered exactly what kind of gay ass chick flick his little bro was watching this time.

"Hey, I think he's coming around."he heard a strange male voice say as he tried to force his eyelids to obey him and open as ordered.

Finally they did, and he jumped in surprise when instead of being greeted by the ceiling of the hotel room he'd fallen asleep in the night before, a strange mans face was hovering above him.

"Wha..?" he exclaimed, automatically going on the defensive and reaching for the weapon he always kept beneath his pillow only to find he wasn't laying on a pillow, or even a bed for that. He was laying on what appeared to be a concrete floor.

"Just calm down son."the strange man said calmly.

"Calm down! Where's my brother? Who the hell are you, and where the hell am I?"Dean asked between clenched teeth as he struggled into a sitting position, a wave of dizziness overcoming him as he did so, the pounding pain in his head intensifying.

"Well, the only one of those questions I can answer for you is my name is Marty Burgess, as for the rest, your guess is as good as mine."Marty, who had sandy blond hair and looked to be in his 40's replied, putting a hand out to help the younger man sit up.

Dean reluctantly accepted his offered hand, and finally got in a upright position leaning against the wall behind him.

"We were beginning to think you weren't ever going to wake up."Dean heard a female voice state, and turned his head in the direction it came from to find that he and this Marty guy weren't the only two who were in the room.

The female who'd spoken was a kinda plain looking dark haired woman with glasses, who he guessed was around his age. There was also a teenage boy with black spiky hair, a middle aged black woman, a big muscled looking bald guy who reminded Dean of a bulldog for some reason, a tall, slightly pudgy black guy, and a little blond headed girl who was still dressed in her pajama's.

The girl was the source of the crying that had awoken him. The black woman had her arm around the sobbing child, trying to calm her down, but it didn't appear to be working.

"Your head will feel better in a few minutes man."the teen spoke up when Dean groaned, rubbing his temples.

"Whatever was used to knock us out leaves a headache as a residual effect."the young woman stated matter-of-factly.

"Who are you people?" Dean asked when a few seconds later, just as the teen had said, his headache started receding to a dull throb.

"Why don't you tell us who _you_ are first pretty boy."the bald man growled rudely in reply, glaring at him through slitted eyes from across the room.

"Umm...I'm not really sure how to take that dude, but just to avoid any further confusion, I like the people of the female persuasion."Dean replied sarcastically with his trademark cocky grin."Though I do appreciate the compliment."

This remark got a snicker out of the teen, but the rest of the rooms occupants were unamused, giving him disapproving looks, while the bald guy stood up angrily and started walking towards him.

"You little punk, I'll..."

"Oh _pleas_e, can you get over your manly acts of immaturity and worry more about why we're here and who brought us here instead of having your little pissing match?" the young woman interjected angrily.

Before either of them could reply to her, a click was heard across the room and they looked to fund that an old TV set, the only piece of furniture in the room, which at a glance one would have thought was broken had come on. A face that was covered by what looked to be a mask of George Bush appeared through the fuzz on the screen.

"Hello my friends. Allow me to introduce myself and explain to you a few things which I am sure trouble your mind at the moment."a mans voice said from within the mask.

Unconsciously, all the occupants of the room moved towards the TV. Dean and the bald man, who had only seconds before been prepared to exchange blows, had totally forgotten about that as they stood side by side in front of the small television set. Even the small girl had stopped crying, and though still huddled close to the black woman, had her face turned attentively towards the screen.

"First of all let me thank each and every one of your for being the subjects of my experiment. Unwilling ones, but subjects nonetheless. I'd also like to apologize ahead of time to those who will not survive until the conclusion of it. As with any scientific experiment a certain amount of casualties is to be expected to achieve the objective."he continued on screen with a shrug.

"Marty Burgess, Casey Tursdale, Cole Boggs, Rose Shephard, Katie Simpson, S.J. Towns, Dean Daniels, and last but not least, Mickey Richards. Each of you were chosen for the different factors that you could contribute to the cause. I'm sure it baffles some of you what there is that you could have to offer, but if you play the game by the rules, some of you might just discover what it is."

"Dude, somebody has seen the "Saw" movies one too many times."Cole, the teen, interjected to no one in particular with a snicker, making the universal sign of someone being crazy with his left hand.

"Yes Cole."the man on the screen said, surprising each of the rooms occupants with the fact he could hear what the boy had said."I admit that certain factors of the game may seem a bit...copycat thus far, but I assure you it is quite different."

"You can hear us?" Dean asked, looking around the room, trying to locate whatever device was planted to allow the man to be able to.

"Of course. I can also see you. How else can I record and log the full experience if I couldn't? And you're wasting your time Mr. Daniels, you'll never find my equipment."the man said from within the mask, a smug tone detectable in his voice despite it being a bit muffled.

"Well good, then you can hear this too then, let us all out of here right now, because if you don't, when I find you I'm gonna rip your head off, mask and all, and shove it up your as.."

"Dean, perhaps we should hear the man out."Marty interrupted , putting a hand on the sometimes hot tempered younger mans shoulder.

"I don't know. I kinda like the idea of ripping the psycho fucks head off myself." the muscled bald guy, said with a sneer.

"No ones going to be able to rip anything off anybody unless we get out of here."the big black man said through clenched teeth."So lets listen to what he has to say and worry about removing appendages later."

"Thank you Mr. Towns. Now, if I may continue. You are in what I call "The Maze".

"Obviously not much on the originality factor."the teen mumbled at the name.

"In actuality, "The Maze" is a large underground compound that was used by the military to keep prisoners that they didn't want the public to know that they had up until about 8 years ago. Through much time consuming research into finding the perfect location to commence with my work, I lucked upon this place, and was amazed at the layout and how perfectly it would play in the experiment, so I purchased it. For an amazingly small amount I might add. So after several years of molding it into the perfect location for my game, I found each of you and brought you here."

"What exactly does this "game"of yours entail?"the young woman asked, pushing her glasses, which had slipped down a bit, back up on her nose with a frown.

"It's quite simple, "The Maze" is a series of rooms that are each connected to one another by a single door. All you have to do is find the key that is hidden in each room that unlocks the door leading into the next."

"Why do I have the feeling there's a little bit more to it than that Mr. Bush?"Dean asked sarcastically."A obviously mad man ,such as you, wouldn't bring us here to go from room to room finding a damn key, now would he?"

"Why must there be such animosity towards me? I am a scientist, and am doing what scientists do. Why can't people just accept that? No one questions when we kill animals in the name of research, so why should doing the same to human beings be any different?"the man asked with a sigh before answering Deans question."But, that being said Dean, you are correct. It wouldn't be much of an experiment if it only entailed searching for a key. In each room, you will have exactly 1 hr to find the key. If, by then you haven' located it, then you will succomb to the gas that I have set on a timer to be released into each room through the air vents."

"So, let me get this straight. We have an hour to find the key that unlocks the door leading to the next room, and if we don't find it we get _gassed_?" Dean asked in exasperation.

"That is correct."the man replied.

"That shouldn't be too hard guys."Cole spoke up."There's like what? 8 of us? We should be able to find a frickin' key easily."

"But, you didn't let me finish."the man said."Along with the key, there are several other items hid throughout some of the rooms. Little surprises I suppose one would call booby traps. The trick is, to find the key while at the same time avoiding finding a trap instead."

"If you'll excuse me for my apparent ignorance, I must ask exactly what part of this "game" of yours is considered any type of scientific experiment?"the older black lady asked.

"Yeah, I don't claim to be a scientist or to know anything about what they research, but how can making us look for a key in a booby trapped room be considered an experiment?" Cole asked with a smirk.

"That's where you're wrong young man. It is very much a scientific experiment. It is an experiment to gauge the human nature and how well people who are each from different backgrounds, some good and others not so good, can work together to achieve a common goal. To see how far some are willing to go to insure their own safety, even if it exactly isn't in the good for the whole group. Most importantly, to see how long it takes some of you to crack under pressure and make dumb mistakes. So believe me, this more than qualifies as an experiment Cole."he answered with a muffled chuckle.

"You do realize our families and friends will be searching for us?" Marty asked."And that they will eventually be able to track you down and find out where you've taken us?"

"You are wrong there Marty old man. See, even though I have interacted with each of you at some point, it was in such insignificant manners that no one will ever be able to link me to any of this. And, in the case of one of you, we met only once before I chose you. I had only intended to have 7 people take part in the experiment, but this final person made such a lasting impression on me that I couldn't possible pass up on including them also." a hint of animosity was in his tone, and for some reason Dean had the feeling that the masked man was directing his words towards him. Which would make perfect sense since he and Sam had only been in town for a couple days.

He mentally scanned through his memories of the short stay in town, but couldn't come up with who the captor might be right off, but he'd keep thinking about it.

"How do we know that if we _do _survive, you'll really let us go?"the black woman asked calmly.

"Like I said, I am only a scientist conducting an experiment. And as with any other subject I've worked with in the past, after the work is completed, you have my word I will release the survivors. If there are any that is."

Dean, during his little so-called promise, had his mind lingering elsewhere, on his brother to be exact. See, be it Dean was a normal person with a normal family, maybe the masked mans words would be true, but he wasn't dealing with a normal one in Deans case at all. He was messing with the Winchesters.

Dean had no doubt his brother would find him. He only hoped he was able to survive psycho Bush's little game until he did.

"Well, when do we start?"the bald bulldog looking man asked.

"You start right now."the man replied, and at that very second the previously locked door clicked and swung open. "So good luck."

TBC

What think? Should I continue? If you do like I have lots of nice surprises, blood, and angst in store. Also Sam will be in the next chapter, so all you little brother lovers can get your Sammy fix! So R&R!


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks to all reviewers of my first chapter. I'm so glad you liked it, and hope you feel the same about this one!

Title:The Game

Genre:Drama/Horror/Angst-all those good things!

Characters:Dean and Sam of course.(It's mostly Dean-centric, but has a healthy dose of Sammy)and some OC's.

Rating:PG13(for now)Rating will go up when it gets more graphic.

Summary:Dean finds himself an unwilling participant in a deranged game of survival.

Disclaimer:I own nothing to do with Supernatural.

The Game

Ch.2

(Sam POV)

Sam rolled over onto his back, yawning and stretching as he sat up in the small bed in the hotel room he and Dean had been using as home base while working on their current case.

He picked up his cell phone laying on the small bedside table and checked the time.

12:43. Sam did a double take at this. What? 12:43?

"What the hell Dean? Do you know what time it is bro? We were supposed to meet that Marilyn woman at 4:00 this afternoon! We'll never make the drive in time. Why didn't you wake me u..."he asked, his voice trailing off when he glanced towards the bed where his brother should have been laying, and found it to be empty.

"Dean?"he asked loudly, looking towards the bathroom door, thinking maybe he was inside.

He quickly jumped up from the bed when he received no reply, not yet in full worry mode, but heading closer in that direction by the second.

"Dean?"he repeated, knocking on the bathroom door, which swung open from the force of his knuckles rapping, revealing it to be empty of everything except the shower, sink, towels, and toilet that were customary to the room.

"Okay Sam, just don't get upset."he said aloud to himself, taking deep breaths to calm the hammering that was taking place within his chest."He probably just decided to go see Marilyn alone and let you sleep. There's no need to panic, he'll be back soon."

While telling himself this, he was simultaneously pulling on his jeans and shirt. After succeeding in doing so, he walked towards the door leading to the outside, and the place where Dean had left the only woman in his life, his Impala, parked the night before.

"You're going to open this door Sam, and see that his car is gone, and then when he gets back, you're gonna kick his ass for leaving without telling you, or at least writing a note or something."

Before he even opened it he knew what he would find, a feeling of dread had settled deep into the pit of his stomach to keep his hammering heart company.

Dean would never leave him to sleep while he went on a investigation, and if for some odd reason he had chosen to do so, he would have left a note. He knew Sam would only be worried about him, and Dean didn't like to see his little brother worried.

Not to mention the new case they were supposed to be taking on was about a 5 hour drive away. It would have been pretty dumb to drive all the way there, and then come back just so Sam could catch a few extra hours sleep.

"Shit!"Sam exclaimed when just as he'd suspected, Deans car was exactly where he'd parked it last night, and went back inside slamming the door shut.

"Okay Sam, what do you need to do here? You need to see if his wallet and keys are here still."he answered himself, walking over to his brothers match to his own bedside table, and saw to his horror that Deans cell phone, wallet, and car keys were still laying where he'd tossed them the night before.

Backing slowly from the table in disbelief, Sam tripped over something and barely saved himself from smacking his head into the very table he was moving away from.

"What the hell?"he muttered, looking to see what he'd tripped over.

Shoes, well boots to be exact.

Deans boots.

For some reason or another seeing the boots Dean had been wearing the day before hit him harder than anything else he'd encountered thus far, and the seriousness of the situation struck him with the force of a Mack truck.

Someone or something had taken his brother in the middle of the night. Right out from under his nose, and he'd slept through it.

He guessed that whoever had done it must have drugged his brother or he would surely have been awoken by the sounds of a struggle. From the looks of things Dean hadn't put one up though, and Sam knew Dean wasn't one to go out without a fight.

But who had done it? And why?

Sure they'd just finished a job here in town, but it had been an easy one, and they'd managed to for once, not piss anybody off in the process of doing so. Or so it had seemed.

Sitting down and pulling on his shoes, Sam then stood and walked over to grab the discarded keys from the nightstand, along with his brothers cell and wallet.

Pulling on his jacket, he exited the room, got in the car, and headed out to do the thing that normally was a major no no when it came to the Winchesters.

He was going to the police, because he had no idea where to start in looking for Dean. So maybe, just this once, it was exceptable to get a little help.

He just prayed that whoever had taken his brother wouldn't kill him before they found him.

Pulling into the parking lot of the local law enforcement center, Sam pushed those negative thoughts aside.

If there was anybody who could take care of themselves in extreme conditions it was Dean.

Pulling on the handle to the door, Sam walked inside, and stopped in his tracks when he saw the amount of people that were in the office.

Making his way to the desk, moving through the group of people, he was greeted by an officer with a dour expression on his face asking him,"Yeah, what can I do for you young man?"

"Um...My name is Sam Daniels, and my brother Dean and I have been visiting in your town for the past week or so."

"Uh huh. And?"the officer asked, peering over Sam's head at the group of people in the lobby.

"And, I woke up this morning and he was gone. I know the whole rule about someone not being considered actually missing until they're gone for 24 hours or something like that, but I assure you. I know my brother and he wouldn't just up and leave me. His shoes were still there. Who runs off without taking their shoes, wallet, or car? You have to believe me when I say I know someone has taken him."Sam said emphatically, his hands splayed on the front of the desk as he leaned in closer to the officer.

"Oh, I believe you son."the officer said, his whole demeanor changing after hearing Sam's rant.

"You do?"Sam asked, slightly disbelieving the fact that the police would be so easy to sway.

"Yeah, I do."the man answered with a slow nod before calling out to another officer who stood out in the lobby, with the small crowd gathered around him."Bill! You might want to come back here for a minute, we've got another one."

"Another one?"Sam asked, his eyes furrowed in confusion as the other officer made his way towards him."What do you mean?"

"What I mean is you're the seventh person to report a disappearance since this morning. All taken in the middle of the night right out from under the noses of their friends or families."

"You're kidding me right?"Sam asked his with a distrustful look, thinking maybe the man was just screwing with him.

"Do I look like I'm kidding you?"was the officers solemn reply.

The other officer had by this time reached Sam, and placed a hand on his shoulder to get his attention.

"I'm Detective Bill Campbell."he said when Sam turned towards him, and held out a hand, which Sam grabbed and shook firmly."I'm in charge of this investigation, so please, tell me what you found this morning and give me any information that you think might be related to the disappearance of um...?"he looked at Sam questioningly.

"Dean, my brother Dean."Sam answered, a look of impatience on his face as he stared at the occupants of the lobby, who he was eager to talk to.

"Okay then, tell me everything that you remember that might be relevant. Don't leave out the smallest insignificant detail, but first I need a description of your brother."

"I want to talk to them."Sam stated, a look of determination on his face, still staring at the family and friends of the other victims.

"What's your name son?" Bill asked him, staring hard at his face.

"Sam."

"Okay Sam. I want you to hear what I'm saying, so listen real closely. _We're_ the police, not you. So just trust in us to figure this out. I assure you we'll do all things in our power to insure the safe return of your brother."

"Oh, I trust you sir."Sam replied truthfully."But, I want to help."

"And you can, by telling me anything that you remember. Okay?"he asked Sam, who was still looking distractedly over his shoulder.

Sighing, Bill moved to where he stood directly in Sam's line of vision, blocking his view of the lobby."Tell you what, you tell me what I need to know, then I see no reason why you can't talk to the others, but that's _all_ you're going to do. Understand me?"he asked, giving Sam the typical cop stare that signified he meant business."This is a police matter, and you'll let the police handle it"

"Yes, I understand."Sam said, crossing his fingers behind his back as he added,"I just want to know their stories, so maybe I can better understand whats going on. After that, I promise not to get in the way."

"Good, now that's settled, so start talking."Bill said, pulling out his pad as he stared at the solemn faced young man.

Bill was a good judge of character, and he didn't believe for a minute that this Sam kid would do as he'd promised, but he'd burn that bridge when they came to it.

Hearing Sam start talking, he started writing.

(Dean POV)

"Is it safe?"Casey asked, staring tentatively at the door that now stood open on the other side of the room.

"Safe or not, you heard what that dude said."Cole replied before anyone else had the opportunity."If we don't go in there, he'll probably gas this room up and kill us. At least if we attempt to play along with his little game we _might_ have a chance to survive."

"I hate to say it, because generally teens are punks who only want to cause trouble, but I agree with the boy."the black man, who had told them his name was S.J, said, while moving slowly towards the open door.

"Me too."Mickey growled out."I'd rather take my chances with a couple booby traps than be gassed."

"All those in favor of playing this stupid psychos game, raise your hand."Casey, the young woman with glasses, said half-jokingly, raising her hand as she spoke and waving it in the air.

Marty, S.J., Dean, and Corey each quickly put their hands up, and Mickey said,"I just said I wanted to go, so I ain't raising my damn hand. What is this elementary school?"

"Rose?" Casey asked, giving the older black woman a questioning look.

"I agree also, but Katie doesn't want to go."she replied helplessly, hugging the crying child tightly.

"So what? She's a damn kid."Mickey said with a disgusted shake of his head."She don't count. She goes wherever we tell her to."

"I w-wanna go h-home!"the girl wailed."I want my... b-bed and my m-mom."she said between hiccuping sobs.

"Good god kid, suck it up and shut it up."S.J. Muttered.

"I wanna g-go home!"she sobbed even louder after his uncaring words.

"I say we just leave her in here. At least if she gets gassed we won't have to hear her damn sniveling any more."Mickey commented jokingly, but since it came out in the same tone as when he was serious, nobody picked up on the joking part.

"What the fucks wrong with you man?"Dean asked, angrily approaching the much bigger man with his hands balled into fists at his side."Why would you talk to a scared little girl like that?"

"Captain hero to the rescue."Mickey replied with a sneer, not looking the least bit intimidated by Dean."Anyway, I was just kidding."

"I think we need to make a decision soon people."Marty spoke up."Before he decides that we're not going to go along with his craziness, and just go ahead and gas us."

"You all go ahead, and me and Katie will be along shortly."Dean said suddenly, walking over to where the girl now sat huddled in the corner, head buried in his knees.

"Are you sure? Maybe we should all go at the same time."Rose said, looking uncertain as to whether she should abandon the child into the hands of a young man she really knew nothing at all about. Not that she even really knew about the girl either, but this was different.

"Go Rose. I promise we'll be there in just a minute okay?"Dean said, a hint of annoyance in his tone."She's safe with me."

"Okay then."the woman agreed, deciding to give him the benefit of the doubt.

After that, one by one, each member of the group hesitantly entered the next room until the only remaining people were Dean and Katie.

"Hey Katie."he said, crouching down in front of her."I want you to look up at me for a minute please."

"No."came her muffled reply.

"Aw, come on. Just for a sec, please."he repeated.

"What?"she asked after she finally lifted her head and peered at him with tear filled eyes.

"I want you to come with me and the others into the next room where it will be safer."he stated softly.

"I don't wanna. What if the bad man from the TV is in there waiting on us?"she replied with a quick shake of her head.

"He won't be. I promise."Dean said with a grin."He's too chicken to face us alone, that's why he was on the TV and not here. Believe me, I know a puss...um I mean a chicken when I hear one. So will you come?"

"You sure he won't be there?"she asked, looking at his suspiciously.

"Positive. As a matter of fact I doubt we'll ever actually see him, so hows about you and them cute little Scooby pj's come in there with the rest of us?"he asked, giving her his most persuading smile, hoping it worked as well on little kids as it did adults.

"Well, ok."she agreed reluctantly a moment later, grabbing the hand he'd held out to her and standing up."But if he _is_ in there I'm gonna be really mad at you for fibbing."she added seriously.

"Fair enough."Dean said with a smile before turning around and crouching down, saying."Hop on."

"Yay, I love piggy back rides, my daddy gives them to me all the time."she said, giggling happily, then asked him as they went towards the door to the next room."You think my mommy and daddy will find me?" her tone now serious.

"Of course they will."he replied with a nod of his head, hoping she'd buy his show of confidence since inside he really wasn't feeling it ."But...until they do. I want you to try and act like a big girl alright? No more crying, ok?"

"Okay."she agreed, putting her arms around his neck and hugging him from behind as she asked,"You know what Dean?"

"No, I don't know what, but I bet you're about to tell me aren't you?"he answered with a chuckle.

"Yep, I sure am. I like you Dean, you're really nice and you remind me of my big brother Kevin. One thing though, but you can never tell him I said it. You're a whole lot cuter though, he's got some big ole ears."she added in a lowered voice.

"Well Katie. I like you too, and I promise I'm gonna take care of you while we're stuck in this shit hole..uh...excuse my language, I meant to say poop hole."

"Like I've never heard any cussing before."she said indignantly as they entered the next room."I'm not a little baby you know."

"Well, excuse me."he said sarcastically, while staring around at the small room they'd entered.

Dean knelt down and Katie jumped off his back.

"You feeling better now sweetheart?"Rose asked with a warm smile as she moved to stand in front of the girl.

"Yes ma'am. I'm fine now."the girl replied.

"Katie, you stay here with Rose while I go help the others look for the key." Dean ordered, knowing the girl would do as he requested."And don't move or touch anything okay?"

"Gotcha."she said, giving him a salute and then grabbed Rose's hand.

"Well, doesn't seem like it should be too difficult to find the key."he remarked, walking over to where Marty and S.J, were in the process of searching some cabinets.

"It seems that way, yes."Marty agreed, a troubled look on his face as he finished his search, coming up empty handed.

"This room is no bigger than my bedroom."Cole piped in, from across the room where he was looking beneath the pillows on a dingy couch.

The room was only about 25" x 30" and the only furniture in it was the dingy couch, a equally dirty chair with the stuffing coming out, and several book cases, so there wasn't too many places that the guy could have hidden the key. Yet, they still hadn't found it.

"How we doing on time folks? Or does anyone even have a watch to tell?"Dean asked from where he was now knelt on the floor, pulling up a corner of the once beige, but now dirt red colored carpet to look beneath it.

"We've got about 15 minutes left."Casey answered, looking at the small watch that had miraculously been left on her arm.

"Then I suggest we hustle unless we all want a gas cocktail."Dean replied, yanking the carpet up from the floor to reveal the nothingness beneath it."Shit! Where the hell is it?"

"Ooh! Eureka!"Casey yelled suddenly, pointing at one of the most obvious places in the room."There it is!"

"But..it's in the door. Why would he put the key in the door for us?" Dean asked, staring dubiously at the doorknob.

"Well, maybe since it's only the first room he made it easy."Casey replied with a shrug as she reached to turn the key.

"I don't know if I'd do that honey."Rose spoke up quietly.

"Why not? If you want to stay in here and wait around to be gassed, then be my guest, but I for one am outta her..." she didn't get to finish her sentence because at that second, just as she turned the key, a panel opened up in the ceiling over her and something that resembled a attic door swung out and towards her before she could move. Not seeing what had been on the side of the door that had actually struck her, Dean, Marty, and SJ ran over to her, Corey trailing closely behind

"Holy shit!" SJ exclaimed, turning his head to vomit when he saw that the girl had been punctured by a bunch of small steel spikes that were attached to the side that had hit her. Blood running from her mouth as she stared at them with the one lifeless dull eye that had been lucky enough not to have been popped as the other had.

"What happened? Is she alright?"Corey asked, moving towards them.

"No, she's not, and believe me kid when I tell you that you don't want to see it."Marty said, grabbing him by the shoulders and stopping him mid-step before he could reach the door.

"Dear god."Rose muttered, stroking Katie's hair. Amazingly enough, the child, though saddened by what had happened, was not crying. She just looked at the side of the door that was only flat with solemn blue eyes.

"What are we gonna do now about getting out?"SJ asked after regaining his composure."That door is the only one in here, so if she's blocking it, what do we do?"

Dean, who was crouched down, leaning against the wall, while running a hand through his short hair, spoke up.

"Well, we're just going to have to move her out of the way."he said, standing up with a sigh.

"And just how do you propose we do that?" Mickey asked."Looks to me like that thing is pretty solid, which also means its pretty heavy."

"True, but see how it's on hinges? It swung down and hit her, so if it swings down, then we should be able to push it back up."he replied, staring thoughtfully at the paneled ceiling where it had fallen from.

"I ain't touching that thing."SJ said with a shake of his head.

"Oh really? So you'd prefer the alternative?"Dean asked incredulously."How long do we have now until the gas gets released you think? 5, 10 minutes if that long?"

"I'll help."Marty said, walking over to the side opposite where Dean stood.

"Lets do this."Mickey said, leaning over and gripping the bottom which had about an inch or so separating it from the floor.

"Alright, heres the plan. When we lift this thing up, Cole, you open the door. Then the rest of you go through into the next room. Then when everybody is safely in there, we'll let it fall back down again. Got that?"

"Yep, sounds good to me."Mickey replied.

"Okay then, everybody ready?" Dean asked.

They all nodded.

"On three then. 1,2,3, lift!"he ordered as he and the other two men pulled on the heavy steel door, hearing a sickening mushy crunch sound as Casey's body was pulled from the door leading out, stuck tight to the spikes in the steel one.

After what seemed like forever, the three of them got it lifted far enough up to allow room to gain access to the other door.

"Go now Cole."he ordered.

The teen looked hesitant to walk beneath the hanging body of the woman at first, but finally he gathered his courage and rushed forward, grabbing the blood slicked handle and turning the key the remainder of the way simultaneously, letting out a cheer of victory when the door opened.

"Okay, Rose, you and Katie go next. Cover your eyes Katie and don't look up okay? Just let Rose lead you through."he said to the girl, who nodded and placed both hands over her face.

They safely passed through, then SJ started forward.

"Get the watch off her arm before you go through."Dean said to him before he could exit the room.

"No way. I'm not touching her."the man said vehemently shaking his head.

"Don't you think we need a way of knowing how long we have in each room you dumb ass?"Dean asked the much bigger man angrily while he strained to hold the door up.

"I said I ain't touching her. You want the watch, you get it yourself."

"Listen up you pussy fucker."Mickey growled through clenched from where he held the bottom of the swinging door up."You do what he says right now or it won't be gas and booby traps that you have to worry about killing you. And thats a promise."

"Fine."the man said after a small pause, deciding it best not to give Mickey the opportunity to do as he threatened, and with a disgusted look on his face walked over and unpinned the arm that had the watch on it, trying not to look at the body it was attached to in the process. He then quickly removed it and dashed through the door.

"You next Marty."Dean said to the older man.

"Can you two keep the door up without me?"the man asked hesitant to release his hold on the heavy door.

"Don't worry about that old man."Mickey answered from where he stood."I could hold it alone if I had to."

"Go."Dean said to him again, and without hesitating again, Mickey let go and dashed through the doorway into the next room.

"Alright Mickey, your turn."

"Are you smoking crack pretty boy?"the muscled man asked with a deep chuckle."As soon as I were to let this go it would fall and you'd be trapped in here."

"No, I can hold it."Dean argued.

"My ass. Now you go first, and no more arguing cause I ain't moving till you're through that doorway."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive, now quit stalling and go."he answered.

Dean reluctantly let go and walked through to the next room.

True to his words Mickey held the door up easily alone, and when he saw Dean had made it safely, slowly walked his hands along the underside of the trap, using the womans body for leverage until he too entered the next room, and then let it loose. Allowing it to fall back down with a loud bang, he closed the door behind him so no one would have to look at the body still pinned to it.

"Well, one down and who knows how many to go." Dean said with a sigh." So lets get to looking for that key people,but be careful because now we know Mr. Bush was serious about the booby trap thing."

TBC

What do ya'll think? Was it okay? Please R&R!

Next chapter: Sam tries to get to the bottom of his brother and the other missing peoples disappearances, while Dean and the others try to stay alive. Lots of angst, blood and surprises to come, so I hope you all keep reading.


	3. Chapter 3

Thanks to the reviewers, and I apologize to those who think my story is a copycat! I'm trying to make it different now, so just bear with me please! R&R!

Title:The Game

Genre:Drama/Horror/Angst-all those good things!

Characters:Dean and Sam of course.(It's mostly Dean-centric, but has a healthy dose of Sammy)and some OC's.

Rating:PG13(for now)Rating will go up when it gets more graphic.

Summary:Dean finds himself an unwilling participant in a deranged game of survival.

Disclaimer:I own nothing to do with Supernatural.

The Game

Ch.3

"Okay, am I the only one who thinks this place is about as unsafe as it gets?"Marty asked sarcastically, after they'd all entered the next room."I mean I'm not one to be pessimistic, but is there anything in here you _couldn't_ get hurt on?"

"Maybe that half built whatever it is laying on the table there?" Cole offered with a sheepish grin.

"Splinters man, there's always splinters." Mickey said, arms crossed in front of his chest as he huffed, still a bit exherted from holding up the steel door alone.

"Just out of curiosity, are you a body builder or something?" the teen asked him."That was pretty amazing that you held that thing up alone. It must've weighed a ton dude."

"No, not a bodybuilder kid. I was in the military for a couple years, and after I got out Instead of letting my body go all to hell again I just decided to keep in shape. Door wasn't that heavy anyway."the man said with a dismissive shrug.

They all looked around the room uneasily, reluctant to start searching for the key after what had happened to Casey in the last one.

As Marty had said, the room was one big accident waiting to happen.

The walls were concrete like those in the room they'd first woken up in, but had various tools hanging from steel pegs driven in the walls, a table saw with a rust covered blade sat in one corner, and a large work table covered a whole other wall, an array of tools such as hammers, several different sized crowbars, and a single mallet to name a few, lay strewed across it. Also the half built birdhouse, or at least thats what Dean guessed it was, along with what looked like a dead animal of some type were also on top of it. Three rows of pull out drawers were beneath the table containing god knew what, and the trepidation that they all felt about starting their searching was understandable.

"Got that watch SJ?"he asked the black man, who after giving him a look of loathing, nodded his head, saying,"Sure do, blood and all."

"Good job. Take away about five minutes for the time we've all stood here gaping and start the timing."Dean ordered, ignoring the mans menacing look.

"I guess it goes without saying that we should all be really careful in here. Don't pick up anything that looks the least bit suspicious and if you find the key, do not touch it until we're sure its safe. Got that everybody?"he asked, doing what was natural to him and taking charge of the situation.

"Who made you boss little man?" SJ asked him with a glowering look.

"Nobody, I was merely making a few suggestions, but if you have any words of advise,other than how to run away like a little bitch and be unhelpful, then the floors all yours."Dean replied with a sneer.

SJ, who was bigger than him, but was not aware of the fact that, though smaller, Dean could easily have wiped the floor with him, stepped towards him menacingly.

"Uh uh big guy, you better just back your ass back up."Mickey said, stepping in the mans path.

"Uh guys, I'm not trying to interrupt, but shouldn't we be looking for something?" Cole asked.

"You got lucky this time."SJ said in a low whisper to Dean, backing slowly away from him.

"Oh thank god. I was so scared I was about to piss my pants."Dean replied sarcastically with a scoff, turning back to face the others.

"First, we need to check those drawers I suppose. Seems like the most logical place to hide something small. So Marty, me ans you can get on that. Mickey, you and Cole check out the walls, but let me say again..."

"Yeah kid, I know."Mickey interrupted."Don't touch anything suspicious looking. I may be big, but I ain't stupid." he finished, flashing what looked like a quick grin to show he wasn't really angry, and grabbed the teens arm, pulling him towards where the hanging tools lined the wall.

"SJ, you keep an eye on the time. Think you can handle that?"Dean asked, not even turning to look at the man, knowing if he did so, the mans expression might make him want to kick his ass even more than he already did, and in this particular case, no matter how enjoyable it would be for Dean, it would only be a useless waste of time.

The grunt he received in reply was a satisfactory answer, so he and Marty started towards the tables.

"Hey Dean?"he heard the little girls voice say, along with feeling a tug on his arm.

"Yeah Katie?"he asked distractedly, ready to get to the business at hand.

"I want to help. I'm 7 yrs old, not a baby. So I should carry my weight, you know?"she stated, crossing her arms and looking up at him with a look of determination.

This got his attention, and trying not to smile at how funny her little, trying to be serious and tough act was, he knelt down in front of her.

"But you _are_ helping Katie. You see, Rose is upset, and needs you to stay with her."he said with mock seriousness, winking at the older woman over the girls shoulder when she wasn't looking."Right Rose?"he asked.

"Oh yes, that's right sweetie. I need you with me."the woman replied solemnly, not being totally untruthful because she was still quite upset over the death of the young woman in the previous room. Not to mention she, being a full-time nanny, didn't want to let the little girl out of her sight because she felt a responsibility towards her for that reason.

"Okay, as long as it's being helpful."Katie said after a pause, then unexpectedly wrapped her arms around Deans neck and hugged him tight.

"What's this for?"he asked with a grin, hugging her back.

"Be careful."was her only reply, as she pulled away, blushing deeply.

"Yes ma'am." he said, shaking his head and walking to join Marty in searching the drawers.

"Looks like you have an admirer."the older man remarked jokingly as he picked up one of the crowbars and backing away a bit, used it to pull open one of the drawers.

"What can I say?" Dean replied with a shrug, then, thinking what a smart plan it was to use a crowbar to open the drawers instead of coming in direct contact with them was, copied the older mans actions, adding as he pulled his drawer open,"It's always like that for chick magnets such as myself though."

"Yeah, I bet. You sound like my oldest son. Thinks he's gods gift to women."Marty said, a sad smile on his face at thinking about his family.

"Maybe I can meet him when we get out of here, and show him what the _real_ thing looks like."Dean said, trying to keep the other mans thoughts optimistic."Shit, nothing in my drawer but a bunch of nails and rusty hacksaw blades."he added a moment later after carefully filtering through the contents and slammed the drawer back shut angrily.

"We don't have a temper do we?"the man asked him, quirking an eyebrow up as he too finished rifling through his own drawer, coming up with nothing but some sockets and anchors in it.

"Who me? Nah."Dean answered innocently, opening the next drawer on his end of the table."Just never ask my brother that question about me, he might tell a different tale."

"Older or younger? Your brother I mean?"Marty asked, now going through his second drawer also, finding that making small talk took some of the tension out of the situation.

"Younger. His names Sam."Dean replied.

"You two live in town with your folks or something?"

"No, we're just passing through."Dean replied gaurdedly. He didn't really know any of these people he was with and for all he knew one of them could be behind the whole thing. "What about you? You live here?"

"Sure do. My wife Sally and I have lived here our whole life. Thought there was no better spot on earth to raise the kids."

"How many kids you have?"Dean asked, trying to learn and file away as much information as possible unless he needed it for future references.

"Three. Got two boys, ones about your age I'd guess, names Tommy. The other one, Bill, is still in high school, and I have a daughter, Carly, who's 30."

"Is Tommy 28?"Dean asked, deciding telling his age wouldn't hurt anything, and the mans openness was slowly wiping him from the list of suspects. Dean was a pretty good judge of character, and so far Marty seemed like a decent man.

"27."the man replied, peering closely into his third drawer.

"Then I'm a year older."Dean said, slamming his current drawer shut, receiving a disapproving look from the older man, and smiling sheepishly at him.

"I'm supposed to be coaching Bill's soccer team tonight."the man said, opening his final drawer.

"I wouldn't worry about it Marty. I kinda doubt Bill's too concerned about his soccer team right now."

"Guess you're right."he said, closing his drawer and saying,"Well Dean, I've got nothing."

"Yeah, me neither. Where the hell is it?" he said, his frustration evident as he walked to where Mickey and Corey were finishing up their search also." Anything?"he asked them hopefully.

"Not a damn thing."Mickey replied, then asked,"You?"

"Nope."

"Hey people, we're down to 17 minutes."SJ announced."So no time for chit chatting, get hustling."

"I really want to punch that fucker."Dean muttered.

"That makes 2 of us."Mickey grumbled in agreement.

"Make that 3."Corey chimed in.

"Tell you what, when we get out of here, we'll take turns."Dean said with a devilish grin.

"I'm first."Mickey said as they approached the center of the room.

"You'll get no arguments from me on that one big guy."Dean said, holding his hands up in mock surrender." After seeing you hold that door up alone, I wouldn't step between you and anyone."

"Okay Mr. Smart Guy,"SJ said when they were close to him once again."What now? You seem to think you're in charge, so whats the plan?"

"We could always use his head as a battering ram to open the door."Marty suggested, with a nod at SJ."I'm willing to bet its more than hard enough to break through any door."

"Good suggestion, but we'll hold off on that till its absolutely necessary."Dean said with mock seriousness.

"Fuck all you people."SJ said, moving towards the door that was locked.

"Whoa! Dean, is that what I think it is man?"Mickey exclaimed, nudging the younger mans arm, while pointing up towards the care bulbed light fixture in the room.

"Well, I'll be damned."Dean said in barely a whisper when he saw the small key hanging from the pull switch." Right in front of our damn faces, just like before."

"Yes, but you remember what happened before dear."Rose interjected from where she stood with her arm around Katie."It might not be safe."

"Safe or not, we've got about 3 minutes till we get gassed, so we need to get that key one way or another, and we need to get it _now_."SJ said, looking at the bloody watch he held in his hand.

"Hmm..."Dean murmured, looking thoughtfully around the room. His eyes fell on a telescoping pruning saw that hung on the wall, and an idea came to him.

"Hey Mickey, is it safe to take those things down from the wall?"he asked the bald man, who nodded, looking at him questioningly as he said,"Yeah, we took all of em down to check for a key behind them. Why?"

"Whatcha got in mind kid?" Marty asked, leaning back against the wall.

"See that pruning saw? I say we use it to cut the key down. That way if there is a booby trap then we won't have to be close enough for it to get us."he replied.

"Two minutes people."SJ announced.

"Then what are we waiting for?"Dean asked, grabbing the saw down and extending it out as far as it would go while the others backed up as far away from the pull string as they could. "Here goes nothing."he said, and holding his breath, reached out and snipped the cord to the light.

The piece of pull cord and the key dropped to the ground, and after waiting a moment to see if anything was gonna happen, Dean rushed over and grabbed it, holding it up triumphantly.

"Guess lucks on our side this time folks."he said, tossing the key to Mickey, who was standing closest to the door.

He was wrong, because at that moment, no one was paying any attention to Cole, who had noticed a dart board hanging on the wall, a single dart attached to it, and walked over, plucking it off and moved back a few feet before throwing it, yelling triumphantly as he struck the bullseye.

"Yeah bitch, how you like that?"he yelled, just as a loud grinding noise was heard, followed by a yell of surprise from Marty, followed by a pained one.

"What the hell?" Dean exclaimed, turning to see that the floor beneath where Marty had been leaning against the wall had fallen out from beneath him.

"Marty?"he yelled, running over and peering into the dark hole."Talk to me man! Marty!"

"I'm here."the man yelled, his voice echoing from within the darkness.

"You alright?"

"I think my legs broken."the older man replied in a strained voice.

"How far down would you say you are?"

"Probably 15 or 20 feet."

"Don't worry man, we're gonna get you out of there. Just hang on!"Dean yelled back, standing up and looking frantically around the room for a rope or something to use. There was nothing.

"You're going to have to lower me into the hole."he announced to Mickey and SJ.

"Oh god!"Rose exclaimed at that moment, pointing up to where a vent was placed on the wall, and to Deans horror, he saw the red colored gas coming out of it.

"Fuck! Get that door open now. SJ, give Corey the key so he can get Rose and Katie out of here while we help Marty."he ordered.

"No fucking chance in hell of that happening."SJ replied, already moving towards the door himself."I'm not going to die for some one I don't know."

"Get your ass over here now!"Dean yelled angrily at the man.

"It ain't happening kid."SJ said, as he opened, then disappeared through the door.

Rose stared at him sadly, then looked at the deep hole in the ground before taking Katie's hand and pulling her through the door also.

"We've gotta get him out of there!"Dean yelled, looking at Mickey.

"Look Dean, if it were possible I'd say lets go for it, but without SJ we'll never be able to reach him."

"What about me? Can I help in any manner?"Corey asked.

"He'd never be able to hold on to us Dean."Mickey said in reply to the teens offer.

"We can't leave him!" Dean said loudly, putting a hand over his mouth so as not to inhale much of the red gas that was slowly filling the room."There has to be something we can do!"

"I'm sorry, but there isn't. Get out of here Corey, now!"Mickey ordered the teen, who after a pause of indecision, did as he was told.

Dean started coughing from the small amount of gas that had already managed to reach him.

"We have to try!"

"Come on Dean, if we don't go now that gas will kill us."Mickey said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay Dean."he heard Marty say from within the hole."I know you tried, so there's no use for both of us dying."

"God, I'm sorry."Dean muttered, staring into the darkness.

"Just promise me that if you make it out, no _when_ you make it out, you'll find my family and tell them how much I love them. Can you do that?"

"Of course I can do t-that."Dean replied, his voice breaking slightly at the end.

"Come on. Lets go Dean." Mickey said, grabbing the coughing, younger mans arm and forcefully pulling him towards the door.

"I'll tell them, I promise!"Dean yelled as he was yanked by Mickey and Corey into the room, Mickey slamming the door behind him.

Dean coughed a minute longer, sliding down the wall he was leaning against, till he was sitting on the floor, then buried his face in his hands.

"My fault. All my fault."Corey said repeatedly from where he stood, tears of guilt falling from his eyes."I just had to mess with that fucking dart board.

"You didn't know."Rose argued, pulling him into a hug.

Dean suddenly stood up and marched purposely to where SJ was standing, staring idly at the watch in his hand, and without any warning, reared back and punched him in the face.

"You fucking bastard! We could have saved him! But no! All you care about is yourself you stupid coward!" he yelled, hitting him repeatedly.

Mickey went quickly over and pulled him off the man. Surprised by how difficult it was to do so. Dean was much stronger than he looked.

"Stop it Dean. This isn't solving anything."the bald man said, pinning Deans arms behind his back, adding as he added "And don't worry. I have a feeling that what comes around goes around."as he glared at SJ who was now rising from the floor.

"Alright, alright. Let me fucking go."Dean muttered a moment later after more fruitless struggling."I will warn you though, you cowardly little bitch."he said pointing a finger at SJ."Stay out of my way, and if you do the least little thing you'll regret the day you ever met me. That's a promise."

"Yada, yada."SJ said, not appearing fazed by the threat.

"Wow!" Dean heard Katie exclaim, and for the first time he noticed the room they were now in.

Great, just great.

TBC

Got some Sam coming up next, and who will be the next person to fall victim to the maze.


	4. Chapter 4

Ch.4

"Wow!" Katie exclaimed, eyes wide in amazement as she turned in a complete circle to get the full effect of the room she and the others had just entered.. "This is soo much cooler than my playroom, or any of my friends either."

Dean, along with the rest of the group, looked around.

"This room is every kids dream."Cole commented, adding quickly as he wiped one final stray tear from his eyes,"being that the said kids are girls of course.

Their was no denying this was a child's room, or at least that's what their masked captor had made it up to look like.

A miniature carousel with unicorn's instead of just plain horses to ride on stood in the center of the room, shelves lined with at least a hundred or more porcelain dolls among various other toys adorned the walls which were painted to look like a night sky, stars, moon and all, several wooden rocking horses, a table with two chairs and a tea set atop it, a small wicker rocking chair with a worn Raggedy Ann doll sitting in it staring with large button eyes, and a footstool made up the remainder of the room.

"God, I hate those things."Mickey remarked, looking at the dolls lining the shelves."They are just damn creepy if you ask me."

"Much of my ancestors folklore has included stories about dolls such as those."Rose spoke up, staring with slightly frightened eyes at the said toys as she continued," They say that they carry within them the doomed trapped souls of the poor people they were modeled after."

Dean knew from past experiences that her ancestors tales held more truth to them than she could imagine, but seriously doubted that whoever was holding them captive actually had the power to do the complicated ritual that was required to accomplish such dark magic.

No, these were just real dolls meant to creep people out, and looking at the remainder of the group, he saw that , with the exception of Katie who looked ecstatic, aided by Rose's low words, the psycho who had created this room succeeded in just that.

How simple things were to most kids. Show them some dolls and toys and they forget most anything bad immediately, even something that had occurred only minutes earlier.

But being as how, even as a child, he nor his little brother, other than watching the occasional cartoon here and there, never had the luxury of retreating into the comforting world of pretend, he was unable to truly envy Katie this since he didn't realize what he'd missed.

Therefore making it easy for him to say what he did next,"Come on everybody, snap out of it. They're just dolls, plain and simple."he said sharply, before walking directly into Katie's line of view and kneeling down to her height, putting one hand on each of her small shoulders, ordering her firmly in his best no nonsense, you better listen to me voice,"Katie, I need you to look at me sweetie and pay very close attention to what I say, okay?"

"Okay Dean."she replied quickly, his tone, which was very similar to that of her father when he was upset with her about something, gaining her full attention.

"I know this room and everything in it is just screaming out "come play with me" am I right?" he asked, his voice taking on a more pleasant, yet still firm tone.

She nodded hesitantly after a pause for thought, thinking maybe he was asking a trick question , making her unsure as to whether she should answer truthfully or not.

"That is exactly the reason that you can't touch anything Katie bug."he said, trying to make his words sound more lighthearted."The bad man wants you to touch things, so that you or someone else can get hurt like Casey and Marty did. I know I sure don't want you to get hurt, and I'm willing to bet a quarter that you don't want me or anyone else to be either do you?"

"No, of course not Dean. I really like you guys."she answered truthfully in a solemn voice.

"Thats my girl."he said, playfully tweaking her nose before continuing on,"So promise me that you'll stay right with Rose and not touch anything, no matter how tempting it is."

"I promise."she stated firmly, meeting his once again serious gaze with her own."You don't have to worry one itty bitty bit about me touching anything."

"Hey, I wasn't worried about it."he lied in a exaggerated whisper, giving her a wink."I just wanted to make sure you could keep your full attention on protecting Rose from those dolls."

"No worries, Katie's on the case."she replied with a nod, returning his wink with one of her own.

"Good, now me and the other guys are going to find that key, so keep an eye on her."he replied, squeezing her shoulders briefly, then rising to his feet, giving Rose, who had an amused and compassion filled expression on her face, a meaningful look to convey what he couldn't say in words.

She nodded her head slightly to let him know that she understood the reason behind his words to the little girl, and also so he'd know she would keep an eagle eye on her just in case her resolve happened to stray.

"Alright guys, lets do this."he said as he joined Cole, Mickey, and SJ, the third of which was glaring at him with hate filled eyes, in the center of the room."How we doing on time SJ?'he asked.

Instead of replying immediately, he just stood there with his jaw clenched in anger and defiance.

"Look man, I don't like you any more than you do me. As a matter of fact I think you're a cowardly worthless piece of shit, but I really don't feel like dying anytime soon. So I'm more than willing to push that aside for now and put all my effort towards getting us out of this place without losing anyone else. Do we have an agreement or are you just going to stand there and risk dying over a wounded ego?"Dean asked, trying his best to keep his words from coming out sarcastically.

Choosing not to respond to that particular question, SJ instead looked down at the watch he held and said,"43 minutes."

"43 minutes..Well that's not good, but it isn't bad either. Cole, take the left side of the room, be thorough but also be careful not to touch anything that looks suspicious.'he ordered the youth, who felt guilt and remorse at knowing the hidden meaning behind Deans words.

He nodded wordlessly and went to do as requested.

'Mickey, you take the right side and I'll check the carousel and other stuff on the floor."

"Gotcha."Mickey said, already heading towards his assigned area.

They searched silently for a bit, but found nothing.

"Time?"Dean asked SJ, who looked and said,"24 minutes."

"Where the hell is it?"Mickey exclaimed after checking the last of his side and finding not a damn thing.

"Don't stress it big guy, we'll find the key. Just help Cole finish checking over there."Dean said calmly nodding his head towards the teen as he carefully continued his investigation of his final item, praying the small carousel held the key hid somewhere on it.

He was anything but calm to tell the truth. Time was running out and they'd checked almost everywhere, but he knew letting his true feelings of fear and dread show would only make things worse.

After several more minutes, an unexplainable nagging feeling made Dean look up from his spot once more.

Just in time to see Katie standing atop the footstool , reaching for a small jewelry box that was perched on a high shelf and was shaped as an exact replica of the carousel.

Somehow or other this single object had went totally unnoticed by him and the others until this exact second.

A smile lit up the girls face as she proclaimed loudly to the whole room.

"I know you said not to touch anything Dean, but I bet the keys in here ." putting her small hand around its base as she prepared to tilt the top of it open.

Call it second sense or just a ingrown radar built in him due to his line of work, but Dean without a doubt she shouldn't be touching it.

"Dammit Katie."he called out already walking quickly towards her,"Don't even think about picking that up."

She of course, as would be the case with any child, didn't listen, impervious to his words as she did exactly as he told her not too and lifted it from where it sat.

Deans eyes made a quick darting glance around the room when he heard a strange click immediately afterwards, and saw a panel slowly opening in the wall directly across from where she stood on the stool.

"Oh Fuck."he exclaimed, now running towards her."Katie get down now!"

She froze in place at his sudden outburst, then turned to see him running towards her, but made no effort to do as he said.

All the others had by this time stopped in their own searches and turned to see what was going on.

"Katie dear, get down now sweetie."Rose echoed his order, truly shocked to see the girl had moved from where she'd been sitting on the floor beside where she stood not 2 minutes earlier.

Cole's eyes traveled the room too and seeing the open panel that hadn't been there earlier, made a dash towards the girl also.

Dean realized with dread that neither of them would make it to her in time due to this room being a sizable bit larger than the other two had been.

This being the case, he did the Dean Winchester thing to do, and jumped over, using his own body to block her from the path of what was to come.

Whatever was in the wall had a timed release and didn't activate until right as the teen reached Katie and was in the process of grabbing and pulling her out of the path of danger.

After he jerked her down,she fell safely to the floor seconds before a long sharp, metal pole flew from the opening.

Too bad Dean himself didn't have time to move also.

He did _try _to jump out of the way of the flying projectile, and almost made it.

Almost.

It hit him though, the power behind it hurling him backwards as it went through the right side of his abdomen and into the wall behind him.

He screamed repeatedly, grabbing the offensive object and trying to pull it out, but it was no use. He was pinned to the wall.

"Oh god!" Cole yelled, staring with wide frightened eyes at Dean struggling to get loose.

Katie had covered her ears and closed her eyes, humming the theme song of her favorite cartoon while tears streamed down her cheeks, attempting to block out his cries of pain that she had caused.

"Don't just stand there! Do something!"Rose yelled, scooping the crying girl into her arms.

Mickey was the first to unfreeze from his position of shock and run quickly to where Dean was pinned.

"Calm down kid."he said, wrapping his own hands around the spear or whatever it was that held the younger man, to try and yank it loose.

"Get it out! Ahh! Get it out!"

"I'm trying kid, I'm trying."Mickey said in reply, pulling as hard as he could.

"We're going to have to pull him off of it."he said a minute later when he realized the pole wasn't going to budge, directing his words towards the teen and SJ who stood flanking him on either side.

"What about the key?"SJ asked, looking at the watch he held and seeing they had only 3 minutes left until the gas would be released.

"Fuck the key! Now help me."Mickey growled at the man.

"N-no! N-no!"Dean yelled in protest.

"Sorry kid, but you'll thank me later for this."Mickey muttered, rearing back and punching the struggling young man in the face, knocking him out cold.

"Thank god for that."Corey said, looking at Dean with watering eyes.

"Well, don't just stand there you stupid fuckers, help me get him off before he wakes back up!"Mickey commanded in a growl, just as Rose's voice exclaimed in the background.

"The key! It was on the music box." holding up the object she'd just noticed was taped to the bottom of the small carousel that Katie had still held firmly in her grasp.

After performing the grissely task of pulling Dean from the wall, Mickey and Corey supported his weight as the group moved on to the next room.

TBC

I apologize for the lack of Sam yet again, but I'm going to make up for it in the next chapter which will be mainly about him and some startling discoveries he's going to make. So Sammy lovers, hang with me here.

Hope this chapter was okay! R&R!

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	5. Chapter 5

Here's chapter 5 everyone. I can't believe I managed to get this written and posted so soon, but I will admit its not one of the best chapters I've written. Not much action and such since I decided to give Dean one kinda tame chapter this go round.(but only for this one!)

Also, maybe not so much for this chapter really, but definitely in the future ones, I'll warn you ahead of time that I'm not really too familiar with law enforcement terms so if you see anything and are like, what the heck, just try and keep that in mind.

R&R!

Title:The Game

Genre:Drama/Horror/Angst-all those good things!

Characters:Dean and Sam of course.(It's mostly Dean-centric, but has a healthy dose of Sammy)and some OC's.

Rating:PG13(for now)Rating will go up when it gets more graphic.

Summary:Dean finds himself an unwilling participant in a deranged game of survival.

Disclaimer:I own nothing to do with Supernatural.

The Game

CH5

(Sam)

It was nearing the second night since Deans disappearance and Sam was not a step closer to finding him or figuring out why he'd been taken in the first place.

As per their agreement, Bill had allowed him to speak to the families of the other people who had come up missing the same night as his brother, but afterwards he found himself even more puzzled than before.

The victims didn't appear to have any connection to one another. It was if the kidnapper had just randomly picked them, at least that was what _Bill_ thought.

But Sam? _No_, he didn't think they were random, but it was going to take time that Dean and the others might not have to figure out their connections.

So, 1 night and 2 days later, backed in a corner and seriously pressed for time, he was, along with the local law enforcement, kicking it into overdrive.

He had also called his father and left a message telling him of the whole situation, and how he could really use his help on this one, but he wasn't going to count his chickens about him showing. After all, dear old dad hadn't come when Sam had left a message telling him Dean was dying, and if that hadn't gotten him, he figured nothing would.

Currently, Sam was with Detective Campbell and the huge task force of 3 other officers in a room about the size of most peoples bathroom that had been designated as their base.

He was going over the reports filed by the families and personal records of the other missing people for the 5th time in the past 2 hours, hoping that something might jump out at him that had been overlooked by himself or the officers, when he heard the only female member of the group say to the detective in a exaggerated whisper."Hey Bill." Obviously she actually wanted the person she was about to speak about, which happened to be Sam, to hear her words because with each word her whisper grew louder, not to mention the fact they were all no more than 5 feet from one another,"As much as I like having someone good looking around here for once, I still have to ask why you're allowing a civilian to be involved in the investigation?" voicing aloud that which her fellow officers had also been wondering.

Looking up at the sound of her voice, Bill put down the report he'd been reading, intertwined his hands together on the top of his desk, gave her the most insincere smile Sam, who was also awaiting his reply , ready to lash out at the woman in his own defense if necessary, while trying to act like he was not listening, had ever seen, and asked her after a small pause,

"Tell me Officer Morlock, who is in charge of this case?"

"Well, you are Bill."she replied, a look of uncertainty on his face.

"That's right. _I_ am. Therefore, should I have to explain the reasoning behind any decision I make to someone who isn't, such as...say..you?"he asked her pointedly, his serious expression relaying that he was in no way kidding.

Officer Sasha Morlock, a plain woman who couldn't be older than 40 and may have been attractive, had she put a little effort in improving her appearance, brown eyes clouded with anger,the corners of her mouth, which had been turned upward into a teasing smile, quickly changed into a scowl, before she finally answered him in a hard, icy voice,"No sir. I suppose not, but in fairness, isn't it policy for the person in charge to keep his team in the loop on the reasoning behind his actions? Especially when the said actions, such as allowing a civilian to read confidential files that are directly connected to a case that he himself could very well be involved in, are against proper protocol?"

"Yes, I would say that is correct."Bill replied, but instead of continuing on and explaining himself as she requested, he picked his report back up once more and said nothing else.

Hah, take that bitch, Sam thought with a smug look at the fuming woman, then turned his attention back to what was important, having to forcefully hold himself back from allowing the words to be said aloud.

Bill, who had already finished going over the report right before she had spoken, was contemplating her question as he feigned being engrossed by his reading.

Her words were true. How did he know that the seemingly harmless young man sitting in the room with them wasn't the person behind this whole thing?

Sure, he seemed genuine in his worry and concern over his supposed brothers disappearance, but since Sam had only been in town for a few weeks, how did Bill truly know that the boy even really had a brother.

So why _had _he decided to let the young man be involved?

He supposed if it came down to him having to explain his actions, he could say that he was, by allowing Sam to "help", actually keeping a possible suspect under close surveillance.

That wouldn't be telling the truth though, because Bill's instincts told him otherwise, and if their was one thing that had never failed in in all his years on the force, it was his instincts. He didn't think for one second that the boy was in any way involved in the disappearances other than his brother being a victim.

No, the main reason he was letting Sam hang around was to keep him from doing what he had no doubts he would, going vigilante, resulting in him either possibly getting himself or the hostages killed or impeding the teams investigation..

Sam also had actually been helpful thus far, asking the victims family members little seemingly insignificant questions that Bill and the other officers hadn't, but should have once he'd thought it over.

Most members of law enforcement would be angry over a kid coming in and making them look like amateurs in their own line of work, such as the other officers on the small task force, but not Bill. When it came to peoples lives being on the balance, he wasn't too proud to accept any assistance he received, be it from a 23 or an 80 year old.

The kids knowledge in law enforcement and computers was amazing for someone who claimed to be in town with his brother selling vacuums, leading Bill to believe that he wasn't being truthful to him in his reason for being here.

Until he either revealed his true reason for being in town Bill wasn't going to press the issue. He was curious, but this being said, had no doubts that one of the other task force members were either thinking of, or were already running a check on Mr. Daniels, so he knew he wouldn't have to wait long until one of them came out with the big reveal. Why waste the time himself when Sasha or one of the others were already on it?

If by some chance his instincts were proven wrong, he would have kept Sam under close watch, so his choice in letting him be an unofficial member of the team would still be justified.

"Hey, I think I might have found something."Sam announced a few minutes later, breaking the silence and immediately gaining Bill and the others immediate attention.

"Well, whatcha got kid? Spit it out."Bill pressed after a silent pause.

"It's not much, but I found a connection between 2 of the victims. This man, a Mickey Richards", Sam said pointing to a file with a picture of a sullen faced man with a buzz cut that put Bill in mind of a bulldog," was an MP for around ten years at a "Bradford correctional facilities."

"That's the army prison that got shut down due to mistreatment of its inmates if I remember correctly, isn't it?"Officer Morlock, who found herself curious of Sam's discovery despite her reservations, asked, tapping her finger against her temple in thought.

"Yes. That's the one."Sam answered after scanning the paper before him quickly once more." It says here in Mr. Richards files that he was one of the few guards that was actually tried _and_ convicted in connection to the beating of a prisoner that resulted in his death. He still received a minimal sentence of 20 years, but only served 8 due to early release for good behavior."

"Good behavior."Bill repeated with a humorless chuckle before pressing Sam on,"You said there was a connection between him and another victim though. Who would that be?"he asked, now looking over Sam's shoulder as was Sasha, at the papers laid out before him.

"This one, a Marty Burgess."Sam replied, pointing at a picture of a middle aged man that was clipped to one of the other files."He was a defense attorney for one of the other guards that was tried, but unlike Mr. Richards attorney, it would appear he actually got his client off scotfree. Guy didn't have to serve any jail time whatsoever."

"Good job Sam."Bill said, clapping him on the shoulder, feeling truly proud of him, and the fact that his decision to allow him to stay was being justified to the others.

Sasha, though she was far from reaching the point to where she would admit it, was impressed by Sam finding this bit of information before they had, and found herself warming slightly towards the young man.

"So we have a connection between 2 of the missing people and a possible motive."one of the other officers whose badge read Timms, spoke up for the first time, enthusiasm at the fact they may have just uncovered their first break in the case clear on his features.

"Maybe so. Aaron, I want you to go see Renee down in the cold case files and bring back the one on our murdered inmate as quick as possible."Bill ordered the officer who had just spoken.

With a nod of his head, Officer Timms was out the door in a flash.

Bill continued speaking to Sam, Sasha, and the remaining officer, a medium built black man whose badge read Bloom.

"Okay folks, here's the plan. We're going to work on the connection between the inmate and our two missing persons, but also I want each of us to take one of the remaining victims and find out everything we can about them to see if they too were at one time connected with the old prison in some form or another, be it due to the murder case or not. If so, we'll cross reference them to try and receive an exact time period where they might have come in contact with the same person or persons. Maybe we'll get lucky and it will be a disgruntled family member of the murdered inmate, but there's also the possibility that what Sam found was a coincidence. Lets leave no stones unturned, because as you see, even the smallest thing could be just what we are needing to find these people. We all on the same page here?"he asked, having already picked up one of said files himself, impatiently waiting for the others to get their asses in gear, which happened immediately.

The room grew silent once more as they set about on their mission with a renewed energy and enthusiasm due to Sam's discovery.

Sam, though now slightly pumped by his small discovery, felt the knot of dread in the pit of his stomach growing.

He would keep doing it Bills way for the time being, but if they'd made no more connections by the next day he planned on taking things in his own hands whether the police liked it or not.

After all, Winchesters were not known for their cooperation when it came to the law.

(Dean)

It was almost midnight when he regained consciousness with a groan. Wishing he had just kept right on sleeping as the fiery hot pain in his side struck him full force.

" I think he's waking up, "Rose who was sitting on the floor with his head resting in her lap, said in a hushed tone to the others, saying the exact words that Dean had awoken to the day this had all begun.

"Hey kid, can you hear me?"Mickey's gruff voice asked from above him, and Dean slowly opened his eyes and answered haltingly with a slight smile,

"Yeah, and here I was...hoping...this was all...a...bad dream."

"No such luck pal."Mickey replied, looking genuinely happy at his just answering him coherently, the closest thing any of them had seen to a smile on his face as he crouched over Dean.

"Damn."was Deans only reply as he shifted where he lay, hissing in pain through clenched teeth when in trying to find a more comfortable position, only succeeded in making the throbbing in his side worse.

"Maybe you shouldn't be moving too much."Cole said in suggestion from where he sat leaning against the wall, across from them in the dark room.

"You...think?"Dean asked sarcastically when the pain had subsided somewhat. Then extending an unsteady hand towards Mickey, said,"Help...me...sit up."

"Dean honey, we just got the bleeding to stop not long ago."Rose said in a tone that relayed her disapproval in his request.

"Need to sit...up."he argued, waving the extended hand at Mickey, who after only a seconds more hesitation grabbed it and pulled him into an upright position, keeping hold of his hand until he was settled as comfortable as possible against the wall.

Dean was glad it was fairly dark in the room, a low wattage bulb lending the only light, allowing no one to see the fact a single tear had manged to escape from his eyes during the painful process of moving.

"Are you alright dear?"Rose queried quietly.

"If you call...feeling...like a skewered...shishkabob...alright."he replied when he could speak again, breathing heavily against the pain, which he discovered did actually lessen somewhat when he was sitting upright."Now, tell me...has anything...else happened? How long do w-we ha—have left in h-here?"

"You've been out for a couple hours since...well, you know."Mickey said in reply,"We got through 3 more rooms without incident. When we reached this one there was a tape with a recorded message telling us that we could stay in here till morning."

"How g-generous."Dean said.

"Guess he wants us well rested so we can fully appreciate it when he kills us all."Cole said with a bitter laugh.

"W-what time n-now?"Dean asked, his head slowly lowering, the effort it took to hold it up becoming too great.

"1:48."SJ spoke up for the first time from the shadows.

"Lay back down before you fall over man."Cole said with concern as he, like the rest of them, witnessed Deans struggle to maintain consciousness.

"N-nah m'okay."Dean argued, lifting his head up once more to try and convince them of this.

"The hell you are."Mickey stated, and sensing Dean would keep right on arguing likewise out of pride, added,"We _all _need to try and get some sleep so we can be refreshed for whatever surprises psycho dick has in store for us tomorrow. Me, Cole and SJ can take turns in staying up unless we get any unexpected visits. Does that sound like a good plan of action?"

Dean started to argue that he too would help, but he was just so damned tired and finally decided against it, nodding his head in agreement.

"You want me to help you back down?"Cole offered, but Dean just shook his head in the negative and closed his eyes.

Though they had all only known him for 2 days, having to bear witness to his condition, which they all realized was only going to get worse, pained them, with the exception of SJ, who could really care less if he lived or died.

No that wasn't true. The way SJ saw it, at the moment Dean had been injured he became a liability, and the sooner he died the better. At least then they wouldn't have to waste precious time they didn't have dragging him from room to room.

Cole volunteered to take first watch, and all the others tried to get some sleep, which was they knew was fruitless.

How could they possibly sleep when one of them could be dying?

Silence descended over the room, no sound to be heard except Deans ragged breathing.

10 or so minutes later, the silence was broken by none other than Dean himself, who they'd thought had went to sleep.

"Katie? W-where's Katie?"he asked worriedly, having just realized that he'd heard everyone from earlier speak except the little girl."Is s-she okay?"

He'd thought that she hadn't been injured before, but wasn't positive of it.

"She's fine."Rose answered quickly to put his mind at rest.

"W-where?"he asked lifting his heavy head to squint into the darkness, distrusting her words, thinking maybe she was just telling him that so he wouldn't feel guilty over his efforts to save the girl failing.

"She's right here with me."Cole replied from across the room.

Still squinting, his eyes finally made out the shape of the teen and little girls bodies in the darkness, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Alright Katie?"he asked, waiting for her to reply before he let himself rest again.

She didn't answer, which puzzled him greatly, but making out that her form was moving, he let his head fall once again, sleep overtaking him almost instantly.

One by one they did all finally drop off despite their thinking it impossible until the only remaining people awake were Cole and oddly enough Katie, who was so upset over causing Dean to get hurt that she hadn't spoken since the incident occurred.

She had come to the decision that if she didn't speak maybe she wouldn't get anyone else hurt, which was irrational logic to an adult, but made perfect sense to her.

She'd almost slipped up when Dean had spoken to her, but had managed to stop herself from replying at the last minute.

She wanted so much to go home to her mommy, daddy, and big brother whom she was missing badly now, but what she wanted almost as much as this was for Dean to be okay.

TBC

Okay, not much happened in this chapter maze wise, but I was kinda trying to set the stage for the next part.

I promise the next few maze rooms will be full of surprises, so hope you all keep reading because I have this, more Sam, and lots of Dean angst in the works.


	6. Chapter 6

Title:The Game

Genre:Drama/Horror/Angst-all those good things!

Characters:Dean and Sam of course.(It's mostly Dean-centric, but has a healthy dose of Sammy)and some OC's.

Rating:PG13(for now)Rating will go up when it gets more graphic.

Summary:Dean finds himself an unwilling participant in a deranged game of survival.

Disclaimer:I own nothing to do with Supernatural.

The Game

Ch6

(_Dean_)

Jerked back into consciousness by the sound of music blaring suddenly from inside the walls of the room they had been allowed to sleep in, Dean slowly opened his eyes, and had to close them again against the unexpected paradox of the night before, the room now being so brightly lit that if one didn't know better, they might have thought they were outside on a, warm, sunny day.

Yeah, except for if he were indeed outside he sure the hell wouldn't be listening to a song that he recalled being in a movie Sam had talked him into watching one night called "O Brother Where Art You, or Thou? Something like that. He couldn't remember the exact title, but the song which still blared around him about keeping on the sunny side was one that had particularly annoyed him at the time, resulting in the combination of it sticking in his head , and Sam singing it just to piss him off for days afterward seeing the flick.

Momentarily his mind drift off, recalling a day months ago when he had finally cracked, reaching his annoyance limit for the song.

_It had been a very hot, muggy day when he and his brother had been standing in a ridiculously long line at a roadside food stand._

_Dean wasn't known for his patience , especially when he was hungry, and when after 20 minutes the line still hadn't moved, he started complaining aloud much to Sam's displeasure, so in an effort to keep Dean from forcing his way to the front of the line, taking down the little kids, old ladies, or whoever else stood between him and his food, Sam had turned to look at him, placing a hand on his shoulder, and said totally straight-faced,"Just relax Dean. I know it's hard to wait your turn little guy, but when I find myself in such dire straits, there's a song, a truly inspirational song, that always helps keep me calm until the line starts moving." _

_Dean had been puzzled as to what the hell Sam was getting at, and when he called him little guy... That had really pissed him off. He was just shorter than him, not little, but the moment when the words "inspirational song" left his brothers lips, realization of what was about to take place hit him._

"_No Sam. Don't you do it."he warned, pointing his index finger at him, narrowing his eyes menacingly."I mean it."_

_It had been almost 2 weeks since he'd underwent the torture of watching that damn movie with Sam, and he'd only just begun to forget the song that he was sure had been written by the devil himself._

_Grinning like a fool, totally ignoring Deans words, Sam had started singing in a high falsetto voice,"Keep on the sunny side, always on the sunny sid..." he wasn't allowed to get the remainder of the words out due to Dean, much to the astonishment of the other people in line, suddenly tackling him to the ground._

"_Hey! Get off me man!"Sam yelled in a whiny tone as Dean held him down on the ground in a headlock."Owww! That hurts!"_

"_I. Will. Let. You. Go. On. One. Condition."Dean has whispered slowly into his brothers left ear._

"_Okay! What? "Sam replied when he realized all his writhing and fighting to get lose from Deans iron grip was getting him nowhere._

"_Promise me you'll never sing that damn song again."Dean had said, followed by tightening his hold when Sam laughed despite the precarious position he was in._

"_Ow! Ow! Stop it you asshole! I promise okay!"Sam had yelled._

"_Really?"Dean had asked him with an unseen look of distrust._

"_Really! Now will you please let me go, you're breaking my frickin neck!"_

"_Okay."Dean said happily, releasing him automatically, standing up, and smiling at the people who were staring at him with dumbfounded expressions, saying in justification of his actions,"I really hate that song." _

_Still standing in line, Sam had remained silent, staring_ daggers_ at him for several minutes before saying, his words sounding immature even to himself,"You're crazy, you know that right? And a cheater at fighting too, cause you know the only reason you were able to hold me down was because you snuck that crap up on me. Had I known you were going..."_

"_Be quite before I take you down again Sammy. Hey look the lines moving!"Dean exclaimed with an enthusiastic smile, taking a single step forward. _

_Sam had remained soiled up at him for several hours afterwards, but to be honest, Dean had considered it more than worth it. Want to know why? Because true to his word, Sam hadn't ever sang that damn song again since. _

His thoughts shifting back to the present and the ever increasing pain and discomfort he felt, Dean considered just rolling up in a ball and laying there with his hands in the position they were in now, clamped tight over his ears.

Surely this person holding them captive had to be the devil himself, or herself, to have thought to use that horrible song to awaken them. What was the use to try and fight the devil when you were obviously going to lose?

Fate, or more specifically, _Mickey, _wasn't going to allow this though, and Dean felt someone grab his arm and force him to his feet.

"Come on man, times a wasting"the bigger guy said, ignoring Deans protesting grunts of pain as he led him towards the door that had clicked open from the wall.

Once they had joined the others in the newest room of the maze, Dean found he was actually quite relieved that he'd allowed himself to be drug along since the music stopped the moment they crossed the doors thresh hold.

"Huh? What now?"Mickey muttered, and Dean lifted his head to see just what they had to face this time.

The room was bare except for a desk with a single chair and computer sitting atop it.

"Well, at least there's not much area to cover in searching for the key."Cole commented, rubbing at his still sleepy eyes as he took in the rooms lack of contents.

"It can't be that s-simple."Dean argued, leaning heavily against the door they'd just entered after he lost the support of Mickey who was slowly approaching the computer desk, not for one second thinking that the person behind this was going to let them off so easily.

As if cued by his statement, the computers monitor flicked on, their captors face,once again covered by a Bush mask, popping up on it.

"T-told you."Dean said with a shuddering sigh, trying to keep himself focused on paying attention to whatever was about to be relayed.

"Hello my friends, or what is left of them."the person said in greeting."As you can see, I've decided to go about this one particular part of the maze in a different fashion. Instead of this being a group effort as it has been thus far, I have decided to fashion this one challenge for a single individual among you."

"Hopefully it's not for someone who's died already."Cole muttered.

"No Cole, you needn't worry over such things. I may be many things, but unfair does not rank among them."the masked person said, his eyes actually moving until they were looking in the teens direction, proving once again that he or she could hear and see every action taken by those held captive.

"Well, that's a relief."Mickey said sarcastically.

"It looks as though our young Mr Daniels isn't faring so well ,"the voice said, his words now directed at Dean."Though unexpected, your courageous actions have only served in adding yet another scenario to my experiment."

"Bite m-me."Dean said through clenched teeth, not really caring about what the possible repercussions could be for pissing him off. Couldn't be much worse than what he was already suffering.

"Such defiance from one who is already good as dead."Bush stated.

"What is our challenge?"Mickey spoke up in question before Dean could say anything else that might put him in further peril."We're kinda on a schedule here."

"Yes, you are."the person said in agreement, before continuing on,"There is one amongst you who has made it their life mission to destroy others by way of the very object that sits before you. They've spent countless hours hacking into data bases, seeing things which they have no reason to. Stealing money and identities of others without hesitating to stop and wonder what their actions might cause the victims of their work to do to themselves or their families. I shall not say which of you I speak of. Instead I will state the challenge and if they value their lives the said person will see it fit to step forward."

"Straight out of "Saw", Cole commented on the kidnappers lack of originality as the remaining kidnappee's looked at one another with distrust.

Ignoring the teens remark, the kidnapper began stating the challenge.

"On the computer before you, there is a puzzle to be solved. All the person must do is decipher the coded solution, therefor solving the puzzle and opening the door leading into the next room."

"I have a feeling that's not all there is to it."Mickey stated, voicing what they all thought.

All the previous rooms had held deadly booby traps. Why would this one be any different?

"All I will say is this, given the person decides to accept the challenge placed before them, they should carefully consider any answer they may come up with."the masked person said ominously before the screen flickered and their face disappeared from the monitor, a regular system start up screen appearing in its place.

"Well, which one of you is this meant for?"Mickey asked, looking at each of the rooms other occupants in turn.

"Us? How do we know you're not the hacker dude?" Cole asked, arching an eyebrow at him.

"You don't, but I'm not, I assure you. I don't know shit about computers other than how to play solitaire on one."he answered.

Mickey turned to look at Dean, who had, during the kidnappers explanation, slid down the door and was now sitting against it instead of standing. Looking to be slightly out of it, staring blankly down at his hands in his lap, Mickey hoped the younger man wasn't the one who held their fates in his hands because he doubted he'd be able to crack any type of code in his current state.

Mickey opened his mouth to address him.

"Dean? Is it you dear?"Rose surprisingly spoke up, asking him the question before Mickey got the chance.

It took several seconds, but Dean, who had been lost in thoughts of his brother, wondering if he was looking for him and hoping he wasn't getting into any trouble, finally registered the fact he was being asked a question, and raised his head up to look at the others,"Huh?"

"Rose asked if you're the secret computer whiz amongst us."Cole said before the woman could repeat the question herself.

"Nah, it's n-not me."Dean replied truthfully, deciding that he should really try and pay attention to what was going on around him instead of drifting off into a pain induced la la land."Is it you?"he asked the boy who actually laughed as he replied,"Only thing I know how to do on a computer is go on line and pull up porn sites."

"I hear you."Dean said with a sad attempt at a smile.

"Rose?" Mickey asked her now.

"No dear. I do know a little bit about computers, but am far from being qualified as a hacker."she answered with a shake of her head.

That left Katie, and the strangely silent SJ as the only 2 remaining choices, that is assuming that Mickey, Rose, or Cole hadn't been lying, something Dean thought to be highly unlikely.

"Katiebug, are y-you our allusive computer ace?"Dean asked the girl, who shook her head no without actually looking at him.

Well, that narrowed it down to SJ.

"Its you isn't it?"Mickey asked the other man, who merely glared at him in reply.

"I knew you looked like a sneaky bastard SJ, if that's even your name."Mickey commented, returning his glare with a openly hostile one of his own."So you might as well admit it and get to work on cracking that code."

"I don't know what you're talking about. It's not..."SJ started to say in denial, but was cut off by Dean,

"Bullshit, it's you, so unless y-you're wanting to die, quit lying and do it. T-times running out."he said, wrapping his arms around himself tight against the cold feeling that was slowly overtaking him, while giving the black man a"just try and keep lying, I dare you" look.

Not that Dean could do anything to make him admit it, but he had sensed from first meeting that SJ was a lying coward who no matter how low his actions were, wasn't about to just give up and die. And if push came to shove, he was sure Mickey could think of _something_ to convince the man to tell the truth.

"You're right. It is me, and I don't care whether any of you agree with my line of business or not. I _will_ decipher this code, but know I'm doing it for myself, not any of you."SJ finally replied, walking purposely to the desk and sitting down in front of the monitor after voicing his admission.

"I don't care who you're doing it for as long as you do it."Mickey proclaimed, walking over to hover over the mans shoulder and watch as he worked.

While the two of them did this, Cole walked back to where Dean sat, and stood there quietly.

"Is there s-something you w-want to ask me?"Dean questioned the boy, sensing he wasn't there for moral support.

"Umm...well, we all know what SJ does now, and I was just curious about you and what you do for a living."the boy said hesitantly in reply, adding as incentive."I'll tell you about me if you tell me about you."

This didn't surprise Dean, as a matter of fact he personally thought that they should all talk and try to figure out who was behind their kidnapping, but had kinda given up on that after the whole ,being skewered, thing.

"Alright, I h-have nothing to hide."Dean agreed with a slight nod of his head, taking a deep shuddering breath before he continued on,"I'm I guess what you'd call a h-hunter. Me and my little brother S-sam had been in town working on a case for a couple weeks when this shit h-happened."he finished, deciding to be as honest as possible with the boy without actually revealing the total truth.

"A hunter huh? Like a bounty hunter?"Cole asked, clearly impressed by Deans line of work."I kinda figured you were something cool like that. You've got that look you know."

"A bounty hunter. Yeah, that's r-right."Dean answered after a thoughtful pause. He and his family _were_ bounty hunters, the only difference was that instead of working for money, they worked to save people's lives. "What about y-you?"

"Me? Well, I'm definitely nothing as cool as a bounty hunter. I'm in the process of finishing out my senior year in high school actually, or I was until I ended up here."Cole replied with a shrug, a far away look on his face as he thought about how much he'd love to be in school with his girlfriend Kaylee right now.

Shaking his head in an attempt to clear the cobwebs that were forming in his mind, Dean looked at the wistful expression on the teens face and felt afresh the feeling of loathing towards whomever was behind this shit.

"We're going to g-get out of here Cole."he stated, hoping his words held more assurance than he actually felt.

"People have to be looking for us by now, right?"the teen asked, continuing on before Dean could reply,"After all, you said your brother was in town too, and seeing as how you guys are hunters he's bound to be able to track us down, and my dad, he's pretty important in town so I'm sure he's pulling all strings available to help find me."

"What's your d-dad do?"Dean asked.

"He's the town judge, so he carries a lot of power."Cole responded proudly.

"A judge."Dean repeated mostly to himself.

SJ was a computer hacker and Cole's father was a judge, both of which could possibly leave a long trail of people who's shit list they were on.

And what better way to get back at someone than to take their kid, he thought looking first at Cole and then at Katie who was standing silently in the same position beside Rose that she'd been in since they entered the room, taking a moment to muse over what her parents line of work could be.

"Are you sure you've got it?"he heard Mickey loudly asking SJ, and turned his attention towards the front of the room

"Of course I'm sure."SJ snapped indignantly in reply.

"Well, you sure as hell better be cause you heard what he said."Mickey stated in warning.

"I said I am, now shut up and let me finish this last part."SJ ordered, typing quickly to finish the deciphering of, what he's discovered to be a very advanced type of anagram puzzle, displayed on the computer before him.

Despite his assurances, SJ still hesitated momentarily before typing in the last word and hitting enter.

What if he was wrong? What would happen?

Don't stress it, you're not wrong. This is so much easier to figure out than many of the other things you've been faced with before, so why hesitate?

Without any further waiting, he pressed the enter button.

The screen cleared, and for several seconds afterwards nothing at all happened as the rooms inhabitants waited breathlessly for what was to come, be it the door opening or not.

The words Sorry, try again, scrolled across the screen suddenly, and another panel, similar to, yet smaller than, the one containing the projectile that had hit Dean, slid open quietly in the wall beside where SJ sat and Mickey stood.

His sharpened senses having kicked in despite his condition, Dean managed to reach his hand out and pull Cole to the ground seconds before a weapon much more conventional than the one he'd been hit with, a long barbed arrow, flew from the hole.

Cole yelped in pain, and Dean looked at him with concern, praying that he'd acted before the arrow had done any major damage to the boy.

"Let me see."he ordered Cole, who had landed less than gracefully on his ass when Dean had yanked him down, and was now sitting there, tears welling in his eyes, with his left hand clamped tightly over the side of his head.

Luck was on their side in this one particular instance because it had only succeeded in grazing the boys left ear, which though painful, was much preferable to it piercing his head, which was what would have happened had Dean not acted so quickly.

With a sigh of relief, Dean said,"Don't worry you'll live, it just b-barely clipped you ear."

At his cry of pain, all of the others had hurried over in concern also and were now staring at him, that is with the exception of SJ of course, who just couldn't believe his translation had been wrong

"It still hurt, ear clipped only or not."Cole whined indignantly, then, looking around at the others and seeing their expressions of disapproval, thought about the fact that Dean was hurt badly, yet hadn't complained one bit, and suddenly felt very ashamed by how he was acting like a complete and total pussy.

He dropped his hand instantly, his ear already having stopped bleeding, and said sheepishly,"But you're right, I'll live."

After seeing the boy was okay, Mickey turned and marched back to where SJ sat puzzling over what he could've possibly done wrong.

"What the fuck was that? I thought you were sure it was right."he said accusingly, jabbing an index finger into the other mans arm, his face red with rage.

"So I was wrong."was his reply."Everyone is entitled to a little misjudgment every now and then."

"Little? You're fucking kidding me right?"Mickey asked incredulously."Your _little_ fucking misjudgment almost caused a teenager to get killed."

"Yeah, keyword being almost."SJ said, showing no signs of apologizing anytime soon, adding sarcastically."Anyway I don't see why you care, after all Captain Hero did perform a miraculous rescue."

"Thats it."Mickey growled, and seconds later SJ found himself the recipient of another flying fist connecting painfully with his face, only this time he decided to fight back and returned the mans punch with one of his own, yelling,"Don't fucking touch me you bastard!"

"I'll touch you all I want you filthy stinking lowlife."Mickey growled, punching him in the abdomen to accentuate his words.

"Stop it guys."Cole shouted, actually having moved forward to try and pull Mickey from atop the other man.

"This isn't helping anything."Rose said, quietly shaking her head, a arm wrapped across the little girls shoulders whom she'd pulled close as soon as the fighting had started.

Sighing wearily, Dean forced himself to his feet, knowing he was the only other person who might be capable of ending their childish behavior.

"That's enough!"he shouted, trying to keep the stammer out of his voice.

His words were ignored as they continued wrestling and rolling about on the floor.

"I said that's enough! We don't have time for this shit!"he yelled louder, with more force while grabbing Mickeys shoulders in an attempt to pull him off of SJ.

For his efforts, Dean received and unexpected blow when by accident, Mickey's elbow rammed into his stomach, and he promptly fell to his knees with a exclamation of surprise and agony at what had just been done.

"Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!"Katie yelled at the top of her lungs repeatedly, unable to keep her vow of silence anymore.

"Shit!"Mickey exclaimed after realizing what he'd inadvertently done and got up from atop SJ, kneeling down beside Dean who now laid silently clutching his stomach, teeth clenched and eyes closed ."Are you okay Dean? I'm sorry, it was an accident."he said sincerely.

It took several minutes before Dean regained the ability to talk once more, but finally he did.

"S'okay. Just...SJ...puzzle..."he stammered brokenly.

He needn't have worried about that, because despite their altercation, as soon as Mickey had gotten from atop him, SJ went right back to the computer, more than aware of the fact time was running out.

Looking over his solution once more, his eyes miraculously were able to point out where he'd made an error in his earlier solution to the puzzle, and quickly retyped it correctly, he hoped, and hit enter, looking at the watch he'd laid down on the desk and seeing that less than a minute remained until the release of the poison gas.

"Come on, come on."he said impatiently under his breath, letting lose a triumphant yell when the knobless door beside the desk clicked open.

Pushing the hatred and hostility towards SJ aside temporarily,Mickey once again helped the injured member of their group to his feet, shame and regret hitting him strongly when he saw the wet liquid staining the floor where Dean had been laying.

His unintentional blow had caused him to start bleeding again.

He's going to die if we don't get out of here soon, Mickey told himself as he helped the barely conscious man through the door and into the next room.

Dammit Sammy, what's taking you so long? Dean asked himself mentally as blackness overcame him and he passed out once more.

TBC

Well, I'm thinking that they'll only be a couple more rooms, 3 at the most, ahead for them. And in the chapter following the next, or even possibly next chapter if I don't make it a totally Sam oriented one, there will be another death.

So hope you all keep reading because I have lots of plans and twists in the works for both Dean _and_ Sam.


	7. Chapter 7

Thanks to all the great reviewers and I hope you like this chapter!

Title:The Game

Genre:Drama/Horror/Angst-all those good things!

Characters:Dean and Sam of course.(It's mostly Dean-centric, but has a healthy dose of Sammy)and some OC's.

Rating:PG13(for now)Rating will go up when it gets more graphic.

Summary:Dean finds himself an unwilling participant in a deranged game of survival.

Disclaimer:I own nothing to do with Supernatural.

The Game

CH7

(_Sam_)

"This is bullshit! Fucking bullshit!"Sam yelled,blinking back hot tears of anger as he held on to the barred door of the cell he now occupied. "I hope you know that while you have me locked up the real kidnapper is probably killing them all! And it's your fault!"

"Shut up kid."the officer on duty growled,walking up to his cell.

"Screw you! Get Detective Campbell,I want to talk to him now!"Sam demanded the officer defiantly.

"You're in no position to be ordering anyone about you little shit, so unless you want me to come in there and shut you up, then I suggest you quit the damn yelling right now and sit.. your.. ass.. DOWN!" the officer said, yelling the last word at Sam, spittle flying from his mouth and hitting him in the face.

Sam started to continue arguing with the man, but seeing the "I dare you to defy me" look on the mans face, decided against it. He was already having the shittiest day he could imagine and really didn't feel like adding icing to the cake by being made to shut up, which he had no doubts the guard would keep his word on.

How could he have been so stupid?

He should have realized that they would run some sort of background check on him, though the fact they'd actually used the fingerprints off a glass he'd drank from to do so still had surprised him.

Here he'd thought they were moronic backwoods cops who didn't know their asses from a hole in the ground.

Thats what I get for thinking.

"Fucking bitch", he muttered, sitting down on the small bunk bed in the cell with a disgusted grunt.

Being one who normally didn't put much stock into cussing, which was something Dean seemed to enjoy enough for the both of them, Sam felt like he'd done more of it in the past several hours than he had in years.

Not that he lacked good reason in calling the female officer a bitch, after all It had been Officer Morlock who had done the deed. It figured since she'd clearly had it in for him from the beginning and all.

When they'd placed him under arrest earlier that morning, she'd stood there with a self satisfied, smug look on her face, and even though he was a firm believer in the whole men shouldn't hit women rule, he'd have made an exception with pleasure in her case had there not been 6 other officers present at the time.

That morning he'd come back to the station after another sleepless night at the motel he and Dean had been staying at during their stay.

Walking in, he should have sensed something was off by the unusual amount of officers present, seemingly just hanging out in the lobby, but_ noooo_...his dumb ass just had to keep right on walking in anyway, nodding and saying good morning to each of them.

Dean would have never let this happen , he'd have known something was fish, but unfortunately for Sam, his big brother _hadn't _been there.

He'd reached the desk and was greeting the woman who had been manning it when suddenly all of the idly standing officers had surrounded him and before he could even move, he found himself being pushed forcefully against the desk, his hands jerked roughly behind his back, a pair of cuffs slapped around his wrists.

"What the..."he'd exclaimed in surprise as the two cops restraining him turned his body around and he found himself face to face with Officer Morlock and Detective Campbell, the first of which smiled smugly as the latter started reading him his rights.

"Sam Winchester, you are being placed under arrest on suspicion of 7 counts of kidnapping, falsifying information and documents stating you to be someone you are not, and suspicion of murder."Bill started.

"Hey! This is crazy, I didn't do anything."Sam argued, frantically looking around to see if there was any way in sight for him to escape.

"You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney, if you do not have an attorney one will be appointed..."Bill droned on unenthusiastically, obviously not happy about what was taking place.

"I didn't do anything."Sam repeated as Bill continued on as if he wasn't even speaking."Why would I kidnap my own brother? This is..."

"Do you understand these rights?"Bill asked after he finished reading, looking at Sam with disappointment.

"No, I don't! Because _I didn't do anything!_ You have the wrong person here. For fucks sake, would I be helping you guys, not to mention staying in your constant presence if I did it? I just want to find my brother! "

"Mr. Winchester, your brother is dead."Sasha stated, speaking up for the first time.

"No, we don't know that. He could still be..."

"He's been dead for months Sam."

"What are you talking about? Dean hasn't been dead for..."Sam started to continue arguing when it hit him at once that they were addressing him as Sam Winchester instead of by his assumed last name Daniels.

Fuck me, dammit, fuck me.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, Sam. You've really done it this time.

"What's the matter? Did you suddenly remember your supposedly missing brother was killed while attempting to murder a woman?"Sasha taunted him."

"Officer Morlock."Bill said in a warning tone, finding her behavior very unprofessional.

"He wasn't trying to..."

"So you're saying that this isn't your brother?"Sasha asked ignoring Bill as she held up a crime scene picture taken of the shape shifter the police had killed while in Deans form.

Even though he'd seen the photo before, and knew that it wasn't really Dean, didn't mean it hurt any less to see the person in his brothers form dead.

"Is this or is it not your brother?"Sasha asked, demanding without saying so, for him to admit it.

"No, well...yes, it does look like him, but its not."Sam answered, his reply sounding lame even to himself.

"Oh really? Then who is it, his identical twin?"she asked sarcastically, adding,"And before you even try to go there, we also checked his birth records and know he didn't have one of those, so save your breath."

"You have no idea what you're talking about."Sam growled at her through clenched teeth.

"Since you've been caught in your little game, how about you go ahead and tell us where you're holding the people you kidnapped."Sasha requested, nonplussed by his words.

"I didn't kidnap anyone."

"Oh give it up Sam, your little game is over, you've lost, so why continue lying?"she asked angrily.

"Officer Morlock, that is _enough_!"Bill spoke up once more.

"I'm not lying, but I have lost, just like the families and friends of the other people who were taken along with Dean. We've lost _them_ because of you!" Sam argued back with the woman.

"Take him back to the holding cell."Sasha ordered one of the other officers, giving Sam a look of pure loathing and disgust as the said guard led him away, adding,"Sooner or later you'll talk Mr. Winchester."

"I want my phone call! It's the law, not that you people know much about that!"Sam continued struggling and shouting all the way back to the holding room, where he was a little more than roughly drug and locked into one of the cells.

Now 3 hrs later, he was sitting on the bed with his thumb up his ass, having no idea whatsoever how he was going to get outta this jail.

But I _have_ to get out of here.

Dean needs me.

They had at least allowed him, grudgingly, to make a call. He'd of course called the only person other than Dean he could think of at the time, his father.

Who, just as the day before, didn't answer.

After leaving another detailed message, pleading with him to come, if for no other reason to find Dean, he'd hung up, all hopes pretty much dashed.

Dean needs me.

That may be true Sam, but the fact of the matter is this. The police think your brother is dead, hell they even have pictures to back it, so how can you prove otherwise.

Tell them the truth. Tell them everything about what you and Dean really do, and why you were even in this fucking town in the first place.

Yeah, and _then_ when they lock you up it'll be wearing a straight jacket in a nice padded room, he thought with a bitter laugh.

The one time when Dean was truly counting on him, he'd messed up by trying to do things by the book.

Now they were both screwed.

"Sam, are you ready to talk now?"he heard someone ask, and looking towards the voice saw that Bill was standing outside of his cell.

"About what? The fact that you people are so eager to make an arrest that you locked up the wrong person instead of continuing the search for the real guilty party?"Sam shot back, standing up from the bed and walking to stand at the bars of his cell."I didn't do this, so if you're thinking I'm going to admit to it, you're wrong. And the more time we waste, the less time that my brother and the others have."

"Sam, you saw the picture yourself. Your brother is dead."

"No he isn't. That was _not _Dean."Sam replied vehemently.

"Look kid, I would really like to believe you, but facts are facts, and they all lead to the same conclusion. You lied to us about why you're in town, about your brother being taken, and god knows what else."

"I may have lied about why I'm here, but not about Dean. "

"Where are they being held Sam?"

"I said I don't know! How many damn times do I have to tell you that? I don't know, I don't know!"Sam yelled at him in reply.

"You know you're making things harder on yourself by being uncooperative Sam. If you were to tell us where they are, your sentence would be much less severe."

"God! I didn't do anything!"Sam yelled, angry tears now falling from his eyes.

"Well, then I guess we have nothing further to talk about."Bill said solemnly, turning to walk away.

"Wait! No wait!"Sam shouted, stopping him mid-step.

"Yes?"

"I'll tell you why we were really in town and how I know that picture isn't my brother, but you have to be open minded. After that you can do whatever you see fit, but please just give me a few minutes. Please? All you have to do is listen."he pleaded.

Having decided padded cell or not he had no choice but to try and gain Bills trust once more, and If breaking the unspoken rule and telling the detective everything was what it would take to help Dean, then so be it.

The detective looked indecisive for a moment and Sam feared he was going to walk away without hearing him out, but finally he walked to the desk, grabbed a chair, pulled it over in front of Sam's cell and sitting down.

"Alright Sam, I'll bite, tell me."Bill said, giving him his undivided attention.

"First answer me one question, are you still having the others check for leads just in case I might happen to be telling the truth?"Sam asked hopefully.

"Yes, now start talking."Bill replied honestly.

Like he said, he truly wanted to believe the young man had nothing to do with what was happening, and despite argument from Morlock for doing so, he'd indeed told his team to keep checking for other connections between the missing people.

"Okay, well its a long story, but I suppose I should start from the begin..."Sam started, but to his dismay was cut off by Officer Timms walking into the holding area and approaching Bill with an angry frown.

"Sir, there's been a new development."he stated, stopping beside the detective.

"What now?"Bill asked with a look of exasperation.

"Someone called the feds."he replied.

"_Great_."Bill muttered, then asked,"So when should we be expecting them?"

"How about right now."Timms replied with a humorless chuckle.

"You've got to be kidding me."Bill replied in disbelief.

"No sir, I wish I were."Timms said solemnly."He's here now, waiting in the lobby."

"That's so like those government bastards to show up right when you've finally started getting somewhere in the case and take over."Bill commented bitterly, standing up from his seat and preparing to go meet the agent.

"No, where are you going?"Sam asked angrily."I need to..."

"Sorry kid, but its too late now. When they send out the big boys, that means they plan on making any further decisions and it's out of my hands."Bill replied, feeling genuine regret, adding as he walked away,"And be prepared because I'm sure the first thing this guy will want to do is question our only suspect."

"Can this get any fucking worse?"Sam asked aloud, kicking one of the beds steel legs in frustration, immediately regretting that he did so due to the pain it caused in his foot afterwards.

"Smooth move Sam."he told himself aloud, wincing as he sat back down on the bed.

Now the whole situation and any hope to salvage anything was really screwed.

He'd been sitting there brooding, head hung in hopeless defeat, for several minutes when he heard the sound of footfalls on the floor.

Oh well, I guess this is it, he thought, standing up from the bed.

"Sam, I want to introduce you to Agent Holcombe, he'll be taking command over the case from here on out."Bill announced as he walked into view.

"Hello Mr. Winchester."he heard a male say seconds before he too came into view.

Holy shit, he thought silently, forcing himself not to jump up and scream happily when he laid eyes on the man in a black suit who stood outside his cell.

"Nice to meet you."he replied instead, trying to act natural when he wanted nothing more than to cry in utter relief.

The FBI agent was no other than John Winchester.

I'll be damned, maybe things will be okay after all.

Maybe.

XXXXXX

(_Dean)_

Finally after having successfully making it through 3 more rooms without incident, the remainder of the kidnappee's had walked into the next to be greeted by yet another video message. This one stating that they were to be allowed a 3 hour break from their duties.

Surprisingly to them all, there was also a table with food and drinks in the corner of the room.

"Should we eat it?"Rose wondered aloud, a little more than reluctant to eat the food for fear of it being yet another trap.

All others felt the same way, but on the other hand if they didn't eat or drink they'd be putting themselves at a further disadvantage by being weakened due to not excepting what was offered.

After all it had been 3 days and 2 nights since their last meals.

"Fuck it. I doubt the bastard would allow us to die of poisoning. It would be too simple and carry no entertainment. "Mickey proclaimed, walking over, picking up one of the sandwiches, and after a slight hesitation, taking a bite.

Everyone watched closely, expecting him to drop dead at any second, but after almost ten minutes passed without him doing so they too lost their resolve and partook in the meal.

All but Dean, who's condition had declined greatly after only a mere 3 more hours had passed.

He was still in control of his thoughts and such for the time being though, and was able to respond in the negative to Rose, Cole, and Mickey all 3 offering him food.

The bleeding had been even more difficult to staunch the second time around, and it didn't take a rocket scientist to look at his deathly white face and slightly blue tinged lips and figure out he'd lost far too much blood.

Not to mention the fact that due to not having the proper cleansing products and bandages, it appeared his wound was already getting infected, the only coloring on his white face being red flushed cheeks.

He was currently laying in a corner of the room, too tired and in such pain that it took all he had to hold himself in check.

Several times he had found himself thinking maybe it was best if he just died since it didn't appear they were ever going to make it through this fucking maze.

How much bigger could it possibly be?

Shifting slightly, he moaned aloud, his reserve not allow himself to show any signs of weakness now almost gone.

"Dean,"he heard a small, sweet voice say hesitantly. At this, he forced his eyes open and smiled for the first time that day when he saw Katie standing over him, looking uncomfortable as she scuffed the front of her bedroom shoe against the floor.

"Yeah Katiebug?"he replied hoarsely, vowing not to allow his words to come out in a stammer while talking to the little girl.

"I, well...I want to tell you I'm really sorry for causing you to get hurt."she said, staring down at her feet in shame."I really thought I was helping you guys by finding the key."

Having witnessed Deans decline, she had decided that maybe her plan of not speaking to anyone wasn't such a good one after all.

When she was sick, nothing felt better than having her mommy and daddy with her, and since Deans parents weren't there to comfort him, then she 'sposed she would.

That is if he didn't totally hate her after what she'd caused.

"I know, it's okay."he said in reply to her apology."Wasn't really your fault anyway."

"So you don't hate me now?"she asked, giving him a skeptical look.

"No way. Never."he replied, happy that she had gotten over whatever had been bothering her and was now talking to him again.

"Okay then, good."she said with a beaning smile as she plopped down on the floor right in front of where he was laying. She then extended her left arm towards him, a bottle water grasped within it, and asked,"Want some water?"

Deciding that he would except her offer and try to force some of the cool liquid down, he took it from her hand and said,"Yeah, thanks."in reply.

He took two sizable swallows before handing it back to her, the liquid feeling hot as it went down for some reason or another.

She sat there silently staring at him with concern, not liking how fast he was breathing and how he had started sweating even though the room they were in was cold.

"Katiebug, will you tell me..something?"he asked, stammering a bit against his wishes.

"Sure."she answered immediately, nodding her head.

"What do your mommy and daddy do...for a...living?"

"You mean like their job?"she asked.

"Yeah, exactly."

"Well, my mommy, who's real name is Cynthia, doesn't have one. She worked at the hospital for a little bit, but didn't like it, so now she keeps me, and sometimes my cousin Lauren who's a year older than me, all day. And my daddy, Roy, works at the hospital. He's got a really important job there. He's chief surgeon."she finished with pride.

"Wow, that is...r-really important."he agreed, thinking to himself that a surgeon could also easily be a target for someone who's loved one they couldn't save.

A lawyer, a judge, and a doctor, hmmm...

He was really curious as to what the remaining 2's current jobs were, but was feeling too shitty to even ask.

"Hey pal. Just thought I'd check and make sure everythings okay and nothings bleeding again "Mickey, who had just walked over after having finished eating said, getting on his knees, and reaching out to pull Deans shirt up.

Dean didn't have it in him to argue, so he just allowed him to do as he wished.

Mickey had to force himself not to frown or make any other discouraging facial gestures when he saw that, though still not bleeding, it had obviously become infected which was just as bad.

Thin red lines spidered out from the wound, which was now a reddish purple color around the edges, making their way throughout his body, spreading the infection freely.

Rose also had come over and also seeing the wound, reached a cool hand out and felt his forehead, frowning when she felt how hot he was.

"Poor thing."she said, pushing the wet hair that was stuck to his forehead back gently, a compassionate smile on her face.

"Well, you'll live."Mickey with an obviously forced cheerfulness, pulling Deans shirt back down and standing up, all along thinking that there was a good chance that Dean wasn't going to last much longer.

Dean realized this also, but despite the fear and worry he felt, let his eyes fall closed once more so he could escape into the sweet darkness and forget about the pain he was in.

Several seconds later, he felt something brush up against his arms, and forcing his eyes open, smiled once more when he saw that Katie was laying down in front of him, having obviously decided to take a nap while she could.

What a cute, sweet kid, he thought sadly as he closed his eyes again, allowing them to stay that way even when he felt the little girl snuggle up closer to him.

If he ever had a child, he hoped it would be as good a kid as her, but honestly he was beginning to doubt he'd be alive much longer, much less be around long enough to have children.

Come on Sammy, where are you?

TBC

Boring sappy chapter, but the death I spoke of last chapter, a rather creative one if I do say so myself(rubs hands together anxiously), is coming up next chapter, and with the help of his father, Sam may discover who's behind the kidnappings, and I assure you all will be surprised.

Bye for now! R&R!


	8. Chapter 8

Thanks to all the great reviewers and I hope you like this chapter too!

Title:The Game

Genre:Drama/Horror/Angst-all those good things!

Characters:Dean and Sam of course.(It's mostly Dean-centric, but has a healthy dose of Sammy)and some OC's.

Rating:PG13(for now)Rating will go up when it gets more graphic.

Summary:Dean finds himself an unwilling participant in a deranged game of survival.

Disclaimer:I own nothing to do with Supernatural.

The Game

Ch8

"Ugh! What's that smell?" Cole exclaimed in disgust as he and the others entered the next room and were greeted by a pungent odor.

"Eww!"Katie squealed, making gagging noises while putting her hand up over her nose in an attempt to block out the putrid stench.

"Something ...dead."Dean stated haltingly. Unfortunately he was all too familiar with the smell, and raising his head momentarily to take a quick scan of the latest part of the maze, realized that even with that being the case, he would never get used to it."Something ...big."

"I'm not even going to ask how you knew that child."Rose commented ,the hand that wasn't holding Katie's covering her nose also.

This room appeared to be much larger than either of the ones past.

The newest room seemed to be larger than the others, but the fact it was dimly lit, it's farthest corners hidden in shadows, made it next to impossible to make out much of anything.

"I don't like this."Mickey proclaimed. The ever present ominous feeling weighing even thicker it seemed.

After looking around the immediate area and making sure it was safe, he decided that the best plan would be to relieve himself of the extra burden of Deans weight temporarily until he had a chance to investigate further.

Asking the younger man, who hadn't said or even complained of anything for over an hour now as they'd trudged from one room to the next,"Hey bud, you alright?"

"Yes...no... s-sitting...n-need to stay up."Dean replied slowly after taking several shallow breaths, apparently sensing what Mickey's next course of action would be.

Not that Dean wouldn't have loved to sit down , after all he wasn't glutton for self punishment, but since it was getting increasingly difficult for him to focus on anything other than the pain and discomfort he was feeling, he feared that if he did allow himself a mere moments rest, he'd lose the remaining drive he had left and be unable to rise again.

"You're the boss."Mickey said, nodding his head as he squeezed his shoulder then hesitantly released his hold.

Despite the support from the wall he was leaning against, Dean almost sunk to the ground as soon as Mickey let him go.

"You sure you don't want to sit kid?"Mickey asked with a sigh after grabbing his shoulders and righting him before he could fall.

Dean just gave him a "just do as I asked" look in reply, and after thinking what a stubborn bastard the younger man was, Mickey looked around at the others thoughtfully.

He would need Cole and Roses aid in searching the room, and though he could do without SJ, who had proved to be more a hindrance than a help, he doubted the other man would be willing to help out with the injured member of their group since he was such a fucking prick.

His eyes fell on the only remaining choice, who was really too small to be of much help, but he had no choice.

All she had to do was make sure Dean didn't face plant anyway, and if she did see that he was about to do so, she could yell for assistance.

Having come to this decision, he said,"Katie can..."

"I'm on it."the little girl replied, cutting him off short, already standing beside Dean as if she'd read his mind.

"Don't...need...b-babysitter."Dean spoke up with a slight scowl aimed at Mickey, who put his hands up in the helpless gesture.

"I'm not a babysitter Dean. You're like way older than me."the little girl said, looking up at him like he was silly, hands on her hips. She added with a smile and giggle before he could respond,"And they want let me help look, so I'll be your crutch."

What could he say to this? Nothing since it was the truth.

There was no way she could help the others.

She might get hurt. Using this as a reassurance that he was aiding by keeping her out of the way, therefore holding on to at least a small bit of dignity, he nodded his head in agreement at Mickey.

"You keep an eye on him while we take a look around, alright?"Mickey asked the girl,a serious expression on his face, his words making Dean scowl once more.

"Yep, don't worry, I can handle it."she replied solemnly, nodding her head.

"Alright, you need us, just yell."he said, ignoring Dean's scowl as he and the remaining 3 members of their group divided up and went to start searching the room.

On his part, Dean tried not to lean too heavily on the girl, but her added support, though not much, was still enough to keep him upright, so he gave her a strained, but grateful smile.

They'd stood in silence for several minutes. Nothing but Deans labored breathing to be heard as he leaned his head back with eyes closed, when he felt she was staring at him.

Forcing his eyes open, he glanced down at her.

"Are you cold?"she asked him as soon as their eyes connected, a look of confusion on her face as she continued,"Cause I don't see how you are since you're sweating and stuff."

"No."he lied after a pause"I'm...fine."

"Then why are you shaking?"she questioned with a pointed look.

He said nothing, finding it best not to say she was correct at the moment.

Anyway if he did so there wasn't much doubt she'd press him for an explanation as to _why _he was cold.

He didn't particularly want to tell her that he was cold because he was dying due to the fact that there was more blood on his shirt and coat than in his body, or that he was sweating because the big hole in his side was infected.

Nope, that would surely be a mood killer and only serve in upsetting her, and the only people he hated upsetting worse than his brother and dad were little kids.

"How'd ya know what dead smells like?" she spoke up once more a few minutes later, looking at him thoughtfully.

Why do kids have to ask so many damn questions he wondered.

For a minute he considered not replying, but finally did.

"It k-kinda falls in my...line...of...w-work."he answered with a humorless chuckle.

"Really?" she asked, actually sounding disappointed as she continued," I thought maybe you might be a model or something cause you're such a a hottie, but guess not huh?"

"H-hottie? T-too bad... you're not...older."Dean replied with a unseen smile.

This was all such bullshit, this little girl, Cole, and all the others too...none of them deserved this crap,not even stupid fucking SJ, but it seemed there was no end in sight to this damn maze for any of them except in death.

Some of us sooner than later, he thought, trying to ignore the total lack of warmth in his body and the constant dizziness .

Still staring at him,Katie started to say something else, but was not given the opportunity due to him erupting into a fit of very painful coughs.

God dammit he cursed silently, feeling as if there was no source of air, a coppery taste, no doubt being blood, in his mouth.

After what seemed like forever, but was in reality only seconds, it ended.

He felt very ashamed of himself when he realized how much of his weight had been on her during this, and after taking several fast shallow breaths to try and draw air in his burning lungs once more he let up off her, muttering that he was sorry.

His spell had scared Katie terribly. Sure she was only a kid, but she still understood that he was hurt and sick. Her daddy _was _a doctor after all.

She prayed it would get no worse on him. He was a nice man, and it wasn't right that he had to be sick.

She reached her small hand out and grabbed his.

He almost pulled away because, as all those close to him knew, he wasn't much for mushy chick-flick moments, but thought better of it.

She was a kid, and they didn't count when it came to that rule.

"I'm really sorry Dean."she said softly after his breathing regulated somewhat."I tell you what though, when we get out of here my daddy will fix you, I promise."

"Thanks."he said, giving her hand a small squeeze.

Fix him? Not likely since he was seriously beginning to doubt he'd be leaving this fucking place alive.

This made him think of his brother again, Where the hell was Sam? He should be here by now.

He was looking for him wasn't he?

Of course he is, don't be stupid, Dean thought, lifting his head and staring at his surroundings, keeping focused on the problem at hand.

The room went from barely lit to brightly illuminated after Cole located a switch and turned it on.

Seconds later a shrill scream came from Rose as she almost fell on top of the source of the bad odor.

"Well man, good call."Mickey commented, glancing over at Dean as he knelt down in front of the body curled in the corner of the room with its back to them.

He found himself wondering if the wounded young man might somehow be behind what was going on.

He _had_ identified the cause of the odor pretty quickly.

Surely he wouldn't have been caught by one of his own traps, would he?

Mickey realized some people would go to great lengths to fool others, but that would've been taking it a bit to the extreme.

No, no way. He'd only known the kid a few days, but he was sure he possessed a heart of gold.

After all, who in the group could honestly say that in the back of their minds they hadn't also known what the smell was?

"Looks like we aren't the only rats that have run the maze."Cole commented, his curiosity much stronger than the disgust he felt as he walked over and peered at the body.

"Doesn't look like the poor bastards been here that long."Mickey stated, reaching out to roll the body, a man obviously by its clothing, onto its back.

Recoiling, caught off guard by the pulpy grotesque mass that was the only thing left of the persons face, he exclaimed in surprise,

"Holy fuck!" looking away from the mess, conscious of the sound of Cole hurling in the background.

"Who do you think he is?"Rose asked, taking a look from afar, moving no closer.

"Don't know. I doubt his family would even recognize him in this state."

"C-check his wallet."Dean, who to everyone's surprise had moved to join them after ordering Katie not to get close to the body, suggested.

"This is a waste of time."SJ interjected at that moment, not even bothering to look at the body."What does it matter who it is? They're _dead,_ which is what we'll be if we don't find that key."

"I t-think it matters a lot."Dean replied.

"I bet so Mr. Hero. You're going to die anyway, so why not cause the rest of us to join you?"SJ retorted with a sneer.

"Hey, shut the fuck up _now_."Mickey growled, pointing a finger in warning at the man."And I agree with Dean, maybe in figuring out who this is we can get some clue as to who's behind this."

"Um...I hate to be the one who points out the obvious here folks,"Cole spoke up once more, raising his hand as if he was in school, indicating he wished to speak,"but look around, there's nowhere to look for a key. There's nothing in here."

Having all been caught up in the discovery of the body, the others, at his words, actually took in their surroundings for the first time since the light had been turned on.

"I'll be damned, he's right."Mickey muttered, seeing the room was indeed bare except for the body.

"How are we supposed to get out if there's no key?"SJ questioned in a panicked voice, walking frantically around the room just to make sure there wasn't anything else hidden away somewhere.

Other than the four walls, a door that upon close inspection they discovered didn't even have a key hole, and the body, there was absolutely nothing here.

"Do you suppose this is it? That this is the last room?"Cole asked, wide-eyed.

"I don't know."Mickey replied honestly, sighing as he once again looked at the body on the floor.

"I t-think we...were...s'posed...to find h-him."Dean, who was leaning heavily against the wall, sweat pouring from his face due to the combined effort of just standing and the fire that now consumed his body, commented, nodding his head at the body.

"Bullshit, what would be the point?"SJ argued in reply.

"M-maybe the person... w-wants us to... k-know who...they are."

"And we're supposed to figure that out by finding a damn dead person? "SJ asked incredulously."One without a face for that matter."

"What do you have there?"Rose asked Mickey, who during Dean and SJ's exchange had been rifling through the dead mans pockets and now held a brown object in his hand.

"A wallet."he replied, flipping it open and revealing the contents within.

"Is there a license?"Rose asked, stepping closer despite not wanting to be anywhere near the decomposing body.

"Not a _drivers_ license, but I did find this."he replied seconds later, holding up a small laminated card.

"What is it?"Cole asked, peering closely.

"Its a license to practice something or another."Mickey replied, having a hard time reading the writing even though the card was laminated, due to the certificates old age.

"L-let me see."Dean requested, holding a shaking hand out.

"Alright."Mickey replied, not able to make hide nor hair of the words on it.

"Well?"Cole prompted a minute later, when Dean had still to make a comment.

"I-it's a l-license to practice l-law."Dean replied, looking up at the others with a perplexed expression on his face.

"Yeah? So now we know he was a lawyer, which _still_ doesn't help us one bit."SJ spat out, quickly losing his patience.

"What else is in there? Anything important?"Cole asked Mickey, who still held the wallet in his hands.

"Lets see...nothing except some pictures."he replied after thoroughly inspecting the wallet.

"Hey...he looks familiar."Cole stated, staring at the picture of a man, what he assumed was his wife, and several younger people who must have been their children.

"Really? How so?"Mickey asked, looking at the teen questioningly.

"I'm not sure..."he replied, pausing to stare thoughtfully at the pic, then down at the body again."Oh wait. I remember now!"he exclaimed afterwards.

"Then by all means share your knowledge."SJ prompted sarcastically.

"Last year when I had to do a term paper on criminal law I got to sit in on one of the towns high profile cases, my dad being a judge and all. What made it stick out was that the defendant was found guilty, surprising many people due to the mans lawyer had put forth such a great case in his defense, and I'm pretty sure that this guy here was the defense attorney in the case."

"So once again we know he was a lawyer, big fucking whoop."SJ said, pacing the room nervously.

"Let m-me see t-that."Dean said, reaching and plucking the picture from the teens hand.

There was something significant gnawing at the back of his fever jumbled memory, but he couldn't put his finger on what it was.

Focusing on the mans bespectacled face, he tried hard to make his mind work correctly.

Wait...a lawyer. Three kids, 2 boys and a girl.

"I'll b-be damned."he said quietly in disbelief, realization hitting him hard.

"What? What's wrong?"Mickey asked.

"This g-guy is..."

His words were cut short by the sound of a door opening.

Everyone turned, seeing to there surprise the person in the Bush mask was now standing right inside the door, a small gun pointed towards them.

"So you've finally figured it out."the muffled voice stated.

"Figured what out? What the hells going on?" Cole asked, surprised to see that the person had actually shown themselves finally.

"G-gonna take your m-mask off now?"Dean asked, pushing Katie behind him.

"Yes, I do believe its time for that."the person replied, reaching up and removing it as he spoke, revealing to all that the person behind everything was no other than the man they'd thought to be Marty.

"You fucking bastard!"Mickey snarled with rage through gritted teeth when he saw who it was.

"Tut, tut, is that any way to treat your host?"he asked, then added,"Since we've all been reunited I believe its time to finish this little game."

Mickey wasn't about to be taken out with no fight, and had decided to tackle the man when all the suddenly Dean groaned and collapsed in a heap on the floor.

Mickey took the opportunity to attack since Marty's attention was temporarily on Dean.

With a growl he ran at the man, tackling him to the ground.

"What you gonna do now motherfucker?"he asked, trying to wrestle the gun from his hands.

SJ, who had stood silently staring also took the opportunity that was placed before him, rushing past the two fighting figures and disappearing out the still open door.

Losing the fight, Marty had to act quick and get the man off of him anyway possible so he kneed him in the groin.

After Mickey fell down, Marty did the same thing that the other man had done earlier and took advantage of the time, rolling away and hopping quickly to his feet.

"What are _you _gonna do now motherfucker?"he asked with a sneer, and before the man could react shot him twice, once in the chest and the other straight in the head.

Someone yelled no, and Marty turned back towards the others with a smile, only to find Dean standing in front of him.

"What the..."he started, cut off promptly by Dean knocking the gun from his hand, then punching him in the face after kicking the weapon across the room.

"Get up!"Dean yelled, his adrenaline pumping one last time, powered by the fury he felt towards Marty."I said get... the fuck... up!"

"Please don't hurt me."the older man pleaded to his surprise, but Dean paid it no mind as he drew his foot back to kick him in the ribs again.

He had the upper hand despite his wound, and was going to take full advantage of it by beating the shit out of the guilty party.

At least that was the plan, but as per norm it didn't go down as he wished because one minute he was winning and the next he heard Katie yell,

"Look out Dean!" immediately followed by someone hitting him in the head with the butt of the discarded gun, knocking him out cold.

TBC

This chapter didn't seem to flow to me, so it may seem a bit crappy, but I had to work late these past couple days and hated to leave you guys hanging much longer, so I went ahead and posted it

Well, next chapter will have some Sam, and those of you who were looking forward to SJ kicking the bucket need not worry, just because he got out of the room doesn't mean he's getting away!

Hope ya liked, R&R!


	9. Chapter 9

Hi all! Sorry it took me so long to update, but I've been a busy little bee lately and just got the opportunity to finish up this chapter, it's kinda long, so I hope ya got a little time to spare. Thanks to all my reviewers and though this isn't the best chapter, please R&R!

Title:The Game

Genre:Drama/Horror/Angst-all those good things!

Characters:Dean and Sam of course.(It's mostly Dean-centric, but has a healthy dose of Sammy)and some OC's.

Rating:PG13(for now)Rating will go up when it gets more graphic.

Summary:Dean finds himself an unwilling participant in a deranged game of survival.

Disclaimer:I own nothing to do with Supernatural.

The Game

Ch.9

"Well I'll be damned, it_ is_ the elusive Mr. Winchester. You know, I'd have never believed, if I wasn't seeing it with my own two eyes that is, that after all the time's you've successfully evaded being captured by us feds, you finally screw up and get caught by some yokel police force."were the words that John Winchester used to greet his son, giving him a cocky sardonic smile, one that was almost a perfect match to Dean's trademark look.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?"Sam asked innocently, catching on to and playing along with his fathers act.

"Oh come on, don't play stupid kid, nobody's buying it."John stated, giving Bill, who was still fuming over the yokel remark, a can you believe this idiot look.

"I take it that you two know one another?"Bill asked after a thoughtful pause.

"Know one another? That would be an understatement detective,"John answered with a smirk, before continuing in explanation."since we've been after this bozo and his brother for the past 2 years."

"_I'm_ the bozo agent Holcombe?"Sam asked, doing a little taunting of his own,"because I believe that the whole "yokel police force catching me" comment kinda reflects pretty badly on you and your other friends in black suits even more than me."

"Shut up."John snapped in reply, a sneer on his face, while Bill merely listened to, and observed, the exchange with a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

"Truth kinda hurts doesn't it?"Sam continued on, enjoying insulting his father, though he wasn't actually doing so, far more than he cared to admit.

"Let me tell you about _truths_ Mr. Winchester,..."John started, only to be interrupted by Sam asking,

"Come on, call me Sam, after all this time aren't we even on a first name basis? You've been chasing us around so long I feel a certain bond, almost like we're, well... family."

"I consider you and that brother of yours nothing more than dirt beneath my feet, but if you really want I'll call you Sam."John replied with a shrug, then looking around the room as if just remembering something he asked when his eyes fell on Sam once more,"Where is that other piece of shit anyway? Don't tell me one of the dynamic duo abandoned the other just because he got locked up."

"Geez, did this idiot even read the whole report before coming out here?"Officer Timm's asked Bill in a barely hushed whisper.

"I doubt it."Sam replied in a confidential tone, answering for Bill who looked more than a little angry with his fellow officers loud slip of the tongue."Agent Holcombe hasn't ever been much for details, _this_ I know as a fact."

"Agent Holcombe,"Bill addressed John, clearing his throat loudly,"Sam here claims that his brother was taken by the same person who's responsible for kidnapping 6 other of my towns citizens."

"Which is a crock of shit."Officer Morlock interjected, having just walked into the holding area and now stood beside John, giving Sam a look of disgust as she continued,"Considering his brother's dead. Way I figure things Mr. Winchester is the one who's behind the whole thing and tried to use us by playing the sympathy card."she finished, looking quite proud of herself afterwards.

"Well, hate to ruin your moment of self satisfaction officer...Morlock, is it?"John asked after leaning over to read her name tag, widening his eyes in an almost comical manner, very obviously making fun of the woman's attitude.

"Yes, that's correct."she answered with a look of confusion.

"Okay then, Officer Morlock, you are way off base in thinking that our boy Sam here's brother is dead."he stated with a shake of his head.

"Wha..? That's impossible."She argued in surprise."We have a photograph that was pulled from official police records that proves he's dead."."

"Answer me something officer, when you ran his prints and such, was or was not, one of the charges that were brought up against Sam identity theft?"John asked her.

"Well...yes, but I fail to see the relevancy of that at this moment."she replied hesitantly.

"You hearing this Sam?"John asked him in exaggerated exasperation, shaking his head in disbelief,"_This_ is why I don't like working with the hometown good old boys. They're such amateurs that they can't see even the very obvious when its laid right out in front of them."

Sam merely gave a shrug in reply giving John a "I hear you but what can you do?" look while thinking how good his father was at playing such a pompous asshole

"Okay, listen here."Bill spoke up angrily, turning away from Officer Bloom, who left the room immediately afterwards, pointing a finger at John,"FBI or not, you will not come in here and insult my officers."

"Yes, yes, you're right. I was way out of line and I apologize."John said, raising his hands in surrender."Let me clarify my words if I may. Mr. Winchester, excuse me, _Sam_ and his brother both have become able to steal the identities of others and slip right into their lives with the ease that you or myself change a pair of pants."

"Okay, continue."Bill prodded him on, curious as to where he was going with this.

After a dramatic pause, John did as requested,

"And yes Officer Morlock, that picture you came up with was at one time who we indeed_ thought_ to be Dean Winchester."

"You thought?"

"Yes, we thought, but as is sometimes the case, after further investigation we discovered we were wrong and not long after uncovered the truth of the matter."he replied, glaring at Sam, who had scoffed and said,"Sometimes?" at his remark, and asked," Okay asshole, care to take it from here? I know how much you love to brag on yourself and this will be your final opportunity to do so to anyone except your new cell mate Tiny."

"We'll see about that."Sam replied with a shrug, nonplussed by the threat as he continued on with," But I'll be glad to tell my new friends the rest of the story."then picked up where his father left off, adding his own flair to the lie he was telling,"One of my brothers more unknown talents happen to be the ability to hack into just about any computer system there is. Heh, he even got into homeland security one time and almo..."

"Get to the point Sam."John interrupted with an annoyed look.

"Okay,those were some good times though."Sam replied with a snicker before continuing on,"anyway, he came up with the idea that it would be easier to evade the feds if they thought one of us was dead, that way the so-called deceased could work out in the open freely and with the ease that the other couldn't. But...it would be a tricky stunt to pull off since they knew what we looked like. You can imagine our surprise when we were visiting an old college friend of mine and ran smack into what could have been Dean's twin. Actually to hear my brother tell it this other guy looked nowhere near as sexy as him, but anyway... We'd both heard many a times in life that everyone supposedly has an exact match, but just thought it was crap that floats around in myth, and didn't put much stock into it until that point."

"So what, you two killed this guy so the feds would think your brother was dead?"Timms questioned, enthralled by the younger mans tale despite himself.

"No, regardless of what laws we've broken, we are _not,_ as I told you already, killers."Sam replied with a firm shake of his head."as a matter of fact, my brother and I actually performed the townspeople a good service in what we did. See, after doing a little investigative work, we found out Dean's doppelganger was behind a murder that had taken place not a month before we came to town. We even saved the life of another potential victim while we were there."

"Well, aren't you two just the Robin Hoods of criminals."John commented sarcastically.

"I still don't see how you could have fooled the government into thinking that this so-called other man was your brother. It would be impossible for them to share the same fingerprints and I'm sure those were ran before they declared it to be him."Sasha stated sceptically.

"Hence the point where my brother's hacking abilities came into play."Sam said with a look of pride."All that he had to do was get into AFIS and switch he and the other mans fingerprint records, and ,Viola, just like that, Dean Winchester was legally dead."

"Huh...must be even smarter than you."Officer Timms commented.

"Lets just say we each have our own special talents."Sam said with a shrug after taking a small pause to contemplate the Officers statement, thinking how much Dean would have loved to hear himself be called smarter than him.

"How'd you find out that the dead guy wasn't the real Dean Winchester?"Bill asked John, still having many reservations about the whole thing.

"Well, lets just say that for supposed super criminals, they sure lack in the common sense area."John answered, looking at Sam smugly before explaining,"He and his dumb ass brother let themselves be caught on camera at the scene of one of the robberies they pulled off. You can imagine our surprise when we received a copy of the surveillance tape and saw that the robbers were the infamous Winchester's, one of which had been dead for over half a year at the time."

Noticing that all the other occupants of the holding area were staring at him, probably wondering how he and Dean could be so smart, yet do something so stupid, Sam shrugged and smiled sheepishly, saying,"Hey, nobody's perfect."

"After that it was fairly simple to delve deeper into the town records where we thought Dean had been killed and uncover the truth."

"Then why let people keep on believing that he was dead ?"Sasha questioned.

"We figured that by letting them continue to think that we considered big brother dead, they would eventually do something reckless due to overconfidence. And lo and behold, our logic seems to have finally paid off."

"That doesn't mean that they aren't behind the kidnappings though."Sasha stated, still reluctant to believe she'd made such a mistake in judgment.

"True enough,"John replied, nodding his head once in agreement before continuing on," but as someone who has personally been on the case since the beginning, I can honestly say that I believe they're not behind this. Now if it was bank robbery or identity theft, then yes, I'd be more than willing to think so, but murder?...It doesn't fit with their profiles."

"Really? Then what about the fact that he's wanted in relation to a murder that took place not long ago?"Bill asked, nodding his head at Sam.

"He's wanted for _questioning_ because the victim was someone he used to date, and we thought by talking to him we might be able to piece together who was really responsible. There was never any suspicion placed on him for actually killing her because for one, we found a full set of fingerprints at the scene that were not his, and secondly, he was spotted in another state at the victims time of death."John answered.

"So, what you're telling us is his brother is indeed alive, and that you believe we're holding Sam for a crime he is not guilty of committing?"Bill asked

"Well, you sure are a quick one, no wonder you're in charge."John replied with a scoff.

"This is the last time I'm going to warn you Agent Holcombe, your attitude is unacceptable."Bill growled angrily.

"You're right, it is."John agreed with a shrug" but, seeing as how I'm the ranking officer and it now involves a criminal wanted by the federal government, I feel it necessary to take over command of this kidnapping case."

"What? Are you crazy?"Bill blurted out before he could stop himself."This is _my _case, and I don't need any self righteous asshole in a monkey suit who didn't even know what was actually going on until 5 minutes ago coming in here to take charg..."

"No offense Bill, but as you clearly realize, no progress has been made, and this burden now unfortunately falls into my hands." and seeing that Bill was about to argue once more, John raised his hand up and said," Any further objections to me taking over will be fruitless because I will not stop, nor leave this town until I have them both, so I suggest you deal with it and work _with_, instead of against, me."

Still seething, but knowing it was, for the time being, in his best interests not to challenge the agents authority, Bill nodded his head in agreement, then asked, "What about him?"looking at the now seated youngest of the Winchesters.

"I want to help."Sam blurted out vehemently, standing up once more and grabbing onto the cell bars.

"Fat chance of that happening."John said with a humph and shake of his head.

"No really, you know I can be of use, _both _of you do."Sam argued, looking back and forth between his father and Bill, referring to how he'd already aided the latter in the only clue thus far as to a connection between the victims.

"He does have a point Bill,"Officer Timms commented, cringing slightly when he received a withering glare from Sasha for doing so.

"If we allow you to help, how can we be sure you won't try and take flight at the first opportunity you're given?"Bill asked, looking at Sam sceptically.

"Because, no matter how much myself, nor my brother would dislike going to prison, we'd never, and I'm positive _he'd _agree with me on this, ever dessert one another. Family is more important than anything. _Anything_."he repeated once more bitterly, looking pointedly at his father, hoping that he caught the hidden meaning in his words.

"I don't think that would be a good idea."Sasha spoke up quickly."He can't be trusted, he..."

Bill cut her off before she could finish by saying"I have no objections to him helping."

"Fine,since it has been proven on a few occasions, emphasis on few, that you and he have been known to help others. I'll let you help,but...that being said, as of right now, you are under my custody Sam, so listen closely when I tell you this, try anything at all and you will be put right back in that cell until we locate your brother, be he dead or alive. Do you understand me?"he asked in conclusion.

"Yes sir, 100"Sam replied, having to forcefully restrain himself from showing the outrage he felt due to his fathers last few words.

"Now.."John said loudly, rubbing his hands together as he looked at Timms, who had the ring that held the cells key on it,"go ahead and let him out. Since I'm not about to let him out of my sight, and it appears I'm going to be in town for a while longer than I'd originally planned, I need to go get us a room for a few nights."

"Why not just leave him locked up until you do so Agent?" Bill asked at this strange request.

"Not that I have to explain anything to you Bill, I will answer that anyway."John started, lowering his his voice slightly, he continued angrily,"Sam is smarter than many people realize, and not that I'm insulting you and your fellow officers abilities, I'd feel much more at ease if he was where I could keep my own 2 eyes on him at all times."

Sasha almost laughed aloud at the irony of him saying almost the exact words that her commanding officer had said to her the day before.

"Do as he says."Bill instructed Timms, who hadn't been about to let Sam out, FBI order or not, until he'd okay'd it.

Walking over to meet his son at the open cell door, John pulled out a pair of cuffs and snapped them on his wrists.

"I said I wasn't going to try anything, so are those really necessary?"Sam asked, rolling his eyes.

"Yes, they are."John answered bluntly, grabbing his arm to lead him out of the holding room, turning around just before exiting and saying to Bill,"It shouldn't be more than an hour or so till I return detective, so until then I want all of you and all you men back on trying to find who's _really_ behind this, and I hope, no I want, to see some results."

"Yes sir."Bill replied, biting his urge to say anything rude in return to the pompous pricks orders.

As Sam and John walked out of the door leading into the hallway, officer Bloom, the remaining member of the original task force, walked in holding a fax and headed towards Bill, Sasha, and Officer Timms.

"What you got?"Bill asked him, taking the paper from his hand.

"He checks out sir."he replied as he read the fax.

"There you have it folks, seems Holcombe is really an FBI agent."Bill announced with a sigh, his thoughts of distrust, and unease towards the man proven to be unfounded."Well lets do as he said and get back to work." he ordered,for some reason or another feeling disgust at himself for locking up Sam ,not to mention guilt over the fact that they'd wasted precious time that the kidnapping victims might not have on the wrong person.

"Now!"he said loudly when none of them moved at his earlier command.

It worked that time, and they all got back down to business.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The ride to the motel was spent mostly in silence, both father and son having a whole lot to say to one another, but holding off from doing so due to knowing what it would lead to.

The only words spoken had been when John was removing Sam's cuffs as they were getting into his truck, and the youngest Winchester had said rudely, "Took you long enough to get here, but I suppose I should be grateful that you even came at all."

John's face had hardened with anger, and for a moment Sam thought maybe he shouldn't have said what he did, but instead of arguing John had merely gotten into the truck without another word.

After that it was quiet, both trying their best to ignore the tension that lay thick in the air.

Halfway there, Sam reached out and flicked on the radio, but had turned it right back off when his dad gave him "the look" after he'd stopped the tuner on a alternative rock station.

Dean was definitely this mans child.

Not 5 minutes later, they pulled into the motel parking lot where Sam and Dean had been staying. John pulled into a space right in front of their room, and removed a key from his pocket.

Sam wondered how he'd gotten a key to their room, but wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of asking, so they wordlessly got out and walked through the drizzling rain that had just started till they reached the door, which John unlocked.

As soon as the door was closed and locked, John had removed his black suit coat and tossed it on a chair, then whipped around angrily, walking to where Sam sat on his bed staring morosely down at his lap

"Tell me something Sam, what was one of the cardinal rules that were laid out for you in case a situation such as what has happened to your brother occurred?"John asked his son through gritted teeth, pacing in front of where he sat.

"I don't know dad, since I was only a baby when all this crap started and lots of cardinal rules have been laid out since then, its kinda hard to remember them all."Sam replied sarcastically, not even looking up at him.

"Quit with the bullshit immaturity Sam, you know good and damn well what I'm talking about."John snapped, stopping directly in front of him,

Sam didn't have to actually see it to know his dad was mad, but really could care less at that moment.

"Lets see dad, is it the one where we never leave family behind? Hmmm... No, guess not since you broke that one yourself."Sam replied with a shrug, finally looking up and tilting his head to the side as if really contemplating the question."Maybe it's the one about always being there when one of our family needs help, but no...you broke that one too...

"Spare me the self righteous act son, you're not one to lecture _me_ about the family rules."John stated bluntly.

"What? Oh, I get it, you're talking about me going to college aren't you?"Sam asked, finally showing some of the anger he was feeling as he glared at his father. "When I left, Dean still had _you_, when you left, he had no one, so it really isn't the same thing. At least he knew where and why _I_ was going. Kinda shows how much you care about your kids, doesn't it dad?"

"Oh shut up Sam. You leaving hurt him much more than anything else I've ever known of, of course he would never admit it, but I could tell regardless. He wasn't the same Dean afterwards. Just having me wasn't enough for him. I'm his father, not his baby brother that had remained the one piece of sanity in his life since his mothers death. His heart wasn't really in the hunting anymore. Sure he went through the paces as normal, but something was missing. That something was _you_."

"That's crap dad. Dean was perfectly fine with me going, he might have said once that he didn't want me to, but I knew he was really happy for me."Sam argued half-heartedly, thinking how if his brother was with them right now, he'd be doing his best to diffuse the situation, especially since it was about him.

"_Please_. You know him as well, if not better, than me Sam. He might have tried to act otherwise but he wanted you to stay, you damn well know that , but didn't let it stop you regardless."

"I just wanted to try and have a normal life and Dean understood that at the time, and still does."Sam argued stubbornly, before insisting once more,"He was perfectly fine with it being just you and him."

"Then tell me something Sam, how come he took trips to see you every month or so without me?"John asked, pacing once more.

"What? He didn't do that."Sam objecting in surprise, getting up from the bed and standing directly in his fathers path."The whole time I was in college I saw Dean maybe 3 times at the most."

"Just because you didn't see him doesn't mean he wasn't there."John stated, turning around and walking the other way."_I_ didn't even know where he was going all those times until I finally let curiosity get the best of me and followed him."

"Why would he come to see me and then not even tell me he was there?"Sam asked in confusion.

"Because he didn't think you wanted to see him."

"That's ridiculous, of course I would have liked to see him."Sam argued."Why would he think that?"

"Maybe because you never invited him to visit? Hell, he actually told me once that you wouldn't even answer his phone calls most of the time, which for him to even say anything about it to me, must have really hurt him. So yes, what in the world would make him think you wouldn't mind him popping up at your doorstep every month, you ask?"

"I answered his call..."Sam started, but let his sentence trail off as guilt overcome him, remembering the many times that he indeed did ignore his brothers calls, then thinking of something, he turned angry eyes on his dad and asked."Well what about you then? If you felt so strongly about it then why did you just up and leave him yourself? That certainly didn't help with any abandonment issues Dean might have. Not to mention that you yourself haven't answered to phone to him once since your little disappearing act. You didn't even answer when I called to tell you he was dying!"

"I may not have answered and you two may not have seen me, but I was at the hospital during his stay Sam, and at the tent meeting the day he was healed. And I know you won't believe me when I say this, but had it come down to it, I would have stepped in and took control, but I didn't need to. You and Dean are a team, and there's nothing that you boys can't handle when you're together ."John answered without pause."I know that soon all of this demon hunting is going to end Sam, be it with us coming out on the winning end or not, and when it does you two will need one another more than ever."

"So you're saying that you ran away from home so that he would come find me because we need one another?"Sam asked incredulously."Or is it truthfully that you just didn't want me to be happy and lead a normal life because you didn't get to, so you went off knowing that he'd come recruit me to help in the wild goose chase to find you?"

"You know that's not what I wanted. Of course I want you to be happy and have a...Listen Sam, now really isn't the time for us to be arguing over this is it?"John stated forcefully."I know we have issues and I do want, at some point in the very near future, for us to try and work them out, but right now we need to concentrate on finding your brother, can we agree on that much?"

"Yes sir, that we agree on."Sam answered grudgingly, his anger deflating as he sat back down on the bed..

"Fine, now tell me, why did you put yourself at risk by trying to work with the damn police? It has never been, and probably never will be, proven beneficial Sam. You knew better than to do something so, so... stupid."

"I was only thinking about finding Dean at the time, and I got the impression from Bill that if I didn't play by his rules, I'd be locked up regardless of whether I was a suspect or not if it would keep me out of the way."Sam replied defensively.

"Whole lotta good it did you."John muttered.

"Yeah, no shit."Sam agreed, chuckling despite himself."It's a good thing "Agent Holcombe" showed up when he did cause I'd probably been wearing a straight jacket in the back of a padded wagon being carted off to the loony bin right now otherwise."

"Don't tell me you were about to try and explain the truth about everything to that man?"John requested stopping his pacing to look at him once more in disbelief, hoping that he wouldn't have been so dumb as to attempt such a thing.

"Okay, I won't tell you."Sam replied sheepishly, looking down at his hands in his lap.

"Hmmm...maybe you really weren't cut out for this kind of work. I should've realized when you blew our cover on that haunting case at St. John's monastery."John muttered, shaking his head.

"_Hey_. I was only 12."Sam argued indignantly"And when you introduced Dean as Father Murphy"a priest-in-training" I couldn't help but laugh. And when he kept making google eyes and winking at that one young nun while you weren't looking, I'd say he gave himself away."

"Guess you're right. Dean always has had a problem with staying in character when there's attractive women, or _any_ women at that matter, involved."John nodded in agreement.

"He's gotten a little better at it, but I still think he likes to wear our priest disguises just to attract women's attention."Sam commented, adding,"He says they lust after what they think is unattainable, so why shouldn't we take advantage of that from time to time?"

"That definitely sounds like a rationalization only Dean would make."John said, recalling more than a few times that his eldest son had insisted upon them donning their priest outfits when it came to women being involved, and how it had indeed seemed to gain them much more attention and cooperation by doing so.

Dean was certainly one skilled man when it came to the opposite sex.

"So how long do we have?"he heard Sam ask, breaking into his thoughts.

"Huh? How long do we have til what?"John asked.

"Till they find out you're not really an FBI agent and come looking for us."Sam answered.

"Oh, no need to worry about that. I actually did happen to run into an Agent Holcombe who was in town to aid in this case, so that's kosher."John replied dismissively.

"Uh...okay. Then what happens when the _real_ agent Holcombe shows up at the station to help?"Sam asked.

"Oh, he won't."John answered with a grin.

"Dad! What did you do?"Sam asked in surprise.

"Nothing bad, but I assure you that we'll be long gone before he actually makes his way back to town."his father answered mysteriously, then turned all business once more when he continued,"Since you've already set up a front for us I think the best course of action will be for us to continue working with the police while also doing some investigating of our own on the side, so when we do go back to the station, keep in character so they won't have any reason to suspect that I'm not who I say, alright?"

"Yes sir."Sam replied, smiling as he added,"You sure are good at playing an asshole."

"Even I like to have a little fun at others expense ever now and then."John said with a shrug, then looked at him and requested,"Now, I want you to tell me everything about what has happened thus far, and leave nothing out because honestly, I have a bad feeling about this one Sam, and I think the sooner we find Dean the better."

"Okay."Sam said in agreement, glad to hear that his fathers intuition was mirroring his own, then started telling him the story from the beginning.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Bill, we just got a call in off 911."Officer Bloom announced, walking into the room where he and the other task force members were working.

"And?"Bill asked, looking up from the file he was going over once more.

"And it seems one of the victims have been located."he continued.

"Where?"Bill asked, standing up and pulling on his suit coat."Which one? And are they talking?"

"Well, they were found behind that old diner down on 81'st and Main, it's one of the women, and no, she ain't doing much talking since they found her dead in a dumpster."Bloom replied in succession.

"What's going on people? What do we have?"John, a.k.a. Agent Holcombe asked as he and the once again cuffed Sam entered the room to find the others standing around Bloom.

"They found one of the victims."Bill replied, adding,"And she's dead."before John or Sam could ask the questions that he'd just asked himself.

Sam and his dad both let out the pent of breaths they'd been holding when he said ,_she'_s dead, feeling immense relief.

"Well, what are we waiting for?"John asked, breaking the silence,"Lets go check out the crime scene and take a look at the body."

Jumping into action once more, John, Sam(who finally rationalized the "agent" into removing his cuffs) and Bill left the office, leaving the others strict rules to keep up their searching and call them if anything else was phoned in.

Sitting in the back seat of the police cruiser, an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach, Sam massaged his temples against the headache that he'd felt coming on since leaving the station while silently praying that they'd find his brother soon.

While doing so he also vowed that if given the chance he would never ignore Deans phone calls again.

"How we doing back there Winchester?"his father asked, having been watching him rub his temples in the rear view mirror, with concern in his eyes but using his asshole voice to question him.

"Just fin..."Sam started to reply, when his words were cut off with a grunt as a, now familiar, but still mind-numbing pain suddenly shot through his head.

"Sam? Sam?"he vaguely heard his father frantically call out right before his eyes shot open and he found himself in an unfamiliar dark place.

"Pull over! Pull the fucking car over now!"John ordered Bill, who looked at him with confusion as he did as requested.

When they were safely out of the path of traffic, John quickly got out from the passenger seat, opened the backseat door, and put his hands on each of his now silent sons shoulders.

"Sam? Can you hear me? What's going on buddy?"he asked, disturbed greatly by the way his son was staring directly at, but didn't seem to see him."Talk to me Sam!"

"Dark. It's dark."Sam replied in a far-away tone.

"Dark? What's dark Sammy?"John asked in confusion.

"The room, or wherever I am. It's dark."Sam answered.

"You're not in a room Sam, you're in the back of a police cruiser. "John stated, wondering what the hell was going on and hoping it wasn't anything serious.

"Not Sam."he replied.

"Yes, you are Sam."John said, shaking him slightly in an attempt to snap him out of whatever was going on in his head.

"I know, but I'm seeing...someone else."Sam replied, distractedly, trying to focus on the darkness around whom ever's eyes he was seeing through.

Never having been told as of yet about his youngest boys new found visions, John had no idea that was what was happening at this very moment.

Bill had also gotten out of the car, and was staring with open curiosity at the young man in his back seat, also wondering what was happening to cause the strange expression on his face.

Sam suddenly lifted his hand and put it in front of his face, staring at it momentarily before lowering it again, this time placing it on the side of his abdomen, he then raised it once more, staring at it with squinted eyes.

"Wet..Hands wet."he muttered in wonder, adding."Hurts."

"What hurts Sam?"John asked, getting an inkling as to what might be happening, though still not believing it.

"Head..Stomach. Everything."he replied, still squinting at his hand.

Though he'd had visions before, none had ever been like this, and had never lasted more than a few seconds. It was like he was actually inside this person and could see and feel, though the feeling part not as strongly, what they did. He was aware of the pain the person was in, but instead of feeling the entire extent of it, only felt a small portion, which alone was enough for him to know whatever was wrong with them was bad, very bad.

Slowly as his vision adjusted to the dark lighting, he made out the outline of the persons legs at first and let his hand fall back down to rest on his abdomen once more.

"Cold, and can't move. No room."Sam muttered, as he became aware of the fact that who ever's mind he was in. was being kept in a very small space that was only large enough for them to sit where they were now when they reached out to touch the wall on their right side, then the ceiling which was no more than a few inches above their head.

No wonder it was so dark, Sam thought, eyes growing wide due to the mounting panic that he, along with the unknown person, was feeling.

"Snap out of it kid."Bill ordered, concerned for the young man despite himself as he saw the puzzled expression from earlier replaced with one of fear.

"Oh god. No room. Can't get out."Sam cried out in a panicked voice, wanting nothing more than for this terrifying vision to end.

"It's alright Sam. You're not being held anywhere, you're right here with us."John stated calmly, shaking his son firmly once more.

At that moment two things happened to Sam at once, for one, he realized that the person was not alone in the small space when someone grabbed their groping hand tight with a much smaller one and said in a child's voice,"_It's okay. I'm here too._"

The next thing happened when he heard the child's next words.

"_You're not alone Dean_."

"Oh god!"Sam exclaimed, snapping out of his trance like state finally after these last words, looking directly at his father with tear filled eyes.

"What? What is it Sam? Tell me."John ordered him.

"Dean...it was Dean."he replied, a horrified look on his face."It was Dean, and he's hurt bad. We have..we have to find him... now."

Not once thinking to question his sons proclamation, being able to tell by his actions and words that he wholeheartedly knew that what he said was true, John joined Bill in the front again after he was sure Sam was okay, and said,"Bill, from here on out we'll be doing things my way, understand?"

Bill, who already thought they were doing things the agents way, nodded.

"Good, now put the pedal to the metal and get to that crime scene."John ordered, as the car pulled back into traffic, looking at, and locking eyes with, his still shaken youngest boy once more in the mirror. Nodding his head at him once in a mental act of assurance that he need not worry, because they soon would find Dean.

He just wished he really felt as sure as he tried to look.

TBC

I know, loooooooooooong, boring chapter, but I felt Dean's abandonment by both of them needed addressing, not to mention I just really think John and Sam would probably argue about that very subject if given the proper chance. I know ya'll probably think they wouldn't waste time on doing so in the given situation, but it would really only take them a few minutes to get out what needed to be said at the time.

So hope ya liked!

More Dean angsty goodness to come next chapter since it's gonna be centered around him.

I'll try not to make it so long cause I know some people don't like longer chapters, and oh yeah, hope ya didn't mind my little additions that I added to Sam's special abilities.


	10. Chapter 10

Hi , thanks to all for reviewing and also for just reading.

Hope you like this chapter and will continue reading!

Christie

Title:The Game

Genre:Drama/Horror/Angst-all those good things!

Characters:Dean and Sam of course.(It's mostly Dean-centric, but has a healthy dose of Sammy)and some OC's.

Rating:PG13(for now)Rating will go up when it gets more graphic.

Summary:Dean finds himself an unwilling participant in a deranged game of survival.

Disclaimer:I own nothing to do with Supernatural.

The Game

CH10

(_Several hours before Sam's Vision_)

"Wakey, wakey! Nap times over Dean. It's your turn to play!"were the sing-song words, along with water being thrown in his face, that ushered him back into consciousness once more.

With a deep, painful hacking cough, he slowly lifted his head and blinked his eyes, looking around in confusion.

"Yeah, thats right my young friend, time to rejoin the rest of us in the land of the living."Marty, or whoever the hell he actually was, said in a taunting voice, following his words with a hard smack to Deans left cheek.

"Hey! Leave him alone you stupid fuck!"Dean vaguely recognized the voice of Cole yell angrily after feeling the sting of the hit." Think you're a real bad ass hitting somebody who can't defend themselves don't you? Well you're not, you're a fucking pussy!"

"Cole, Cole, Cole,"Marty replied in a chastising tone,"Such a filthy mouth on one so young. You should really bite your tongue and watch what you say to me considering the position you're in, don't you think?"

"Bite my tongue? How about you bite me? We're not stupid! We know you're just gonna kill us all anyway, so why even try to act like you're not?"the teen snapped in reply.

"That is not necessarily true Cole. Some of you might very well survive, though I will admit that it's looking doubtful at the moment."Marty replied, then turned his attention back to Dean, who's pain filled green eyes were now focused on him."Ah good, now that I have your attention we'll just move right along to our next event. First of all, I'd like to give you all a little history lesson about this wonderful facility that I have transformed into what you have seen thus far. Well... as mentioned earlier, this used to be a army prison, one that supposedly held the worst of all the criminals that performed wrong doings against our illustrious country."

Dean, who was somewhat more alert, was trying his best to get out of the chair he now occupied, but found it to be impossible due to the fact his arms and legs were being held restrained by thick leather straps, so thus far he had accomplished nothing more than ridding himself of the little bit of energy he had left.

Marty's dialog paused when he noticed Deans actions.

Seeing his fruitless attempt at escaping along with the fact he apparently wasn't captivated by his story, Marty tsk tsk'ed then rared back and struck Dean in the face with the butt of his gun, not hard enough to knock him out but definitely regaining his attention, and said," I would pay attention to this Dean, because it's something you really need to hear. Not to mention it's just down right rude not to listen when someone else is speaking. Have you no manners?"

Dean would've liked nothing more than to put his foot up the other mans ass at that moment and ask how was that for manners but, given the fact he was fighting consciousness, that just wasn't going to happen. He groaned and spit blood from his mouth, as his throbbing head, which felt like it weighed a hundred pounds, started drooping again.

"No, no! No more napping!"Marty exclaimed, grabbing Deans hair and roughly yanking his head back up.

Hissing in pain, Dean gritted his teeth and once more locked eyes with the man, glaring angrily at him.

"There _is _a little fire left in there after all I see. We're going to have to do something about that aren't we? Now as I was saying. This was a prison, but being as how it was run by armed forces, occasionally they took it upon themselves to practice martial law by personally handling certain prisoners that they felt didn't deserve a fair trial. You see as far as they were concerned the moment someone walked in these doors, they were guilty. And who would ever question a little accident here and there since our armed forces would never consider breaking any laws? Our friend Mickey, be it he were still alive that is, could attest to the inhumane treatment, since he was a guard here for many years and enjoyed partaking in it himself."

Deans eyelids were slowly closing, his thoughts growing more jumbled in his semi- delirious state, feeling nothing but agonizing pain and discomfort as sweat pouring freely from his fevered face.

Taking a thoughtful look at the young man, Marty decided that instead of hitting him again, which might only serve in making the younger man more incapable of taking in what he needed to hear, maybe he would just speed his little history lesson up a tad and get on to the next part of the game.

"To make a long story short, the guards got a little out of hand with their punishments and would accidentally kill an inmate occasionally, and to cover up what they'd done they would bring the bodies down to this room to dispose of them. I'm guessing when the inspectors came around every so often they didn't think that the old crematorium in the basement was actually being used, so why even bother to check it out? Had they done so, they would have found quite a few remains from the MP'S dirty work and the inhumane treatment would have been stopped long before."

Crematorium? Dean thought, that one word ringing clearly in his mind as he forced himself to focus on his surroundings.

"Now, on to the game!"Marty exclaimed, clapping his hands together in an almost gleeful manner.

"Dear, bring the boy up here now."he ordered Rose, who had been standing with one hand on Cole's shoulder while holding a gun to his back with the other.

Nudging him forward, they walked up to the two conveyor belts that ran into one of the ovens and stopped.

"Go on now Cole, don't be shy. Hop on up there, we don't have all day."Marty ordered.

"I'm not getting on that thing!"Cole replied, eyes round with fear as he looked at the large furnace the belt fed into.

"Fine, then I suppose we'll just kill you now then. How's that sound?"Marty asked tauntingly, aiming his gun at the boy.

"Stop. Don't...do it."Dean muttered.

Seeing as how he really had no choice since the only adult that was on his side was unable to assist him in any way, Cole reluctantly did as he was told, climbing up on the belt, and laying flat on his back as, Rose strapped him down tight with the flame retardant straps that were used for holding the coffins in place, placing a piece of duck tape over his mouth, then stepped back, a slight smile on her face.

"What...are..?"Dean started to ask, confusion now mixed with the pain in his eyes.

"What am I doing you ask?"Marty cut him off, knowing what he was about to question."Before I tell you, lets see what's behind door number two."and saying this he walked over to the conveyor belt that fed into the other furnace.

After standing over a long lumpy object covered with a large tarp the rooms occupants had until that point not noticed, Marty suddenly exclaimed,

"Viola!"as he yanked it away with a flourish, revealing none other than a bound and gagged SJ who's eyes were almost bugging out from his head as he stared wild-eyed around the room.

"That's right folks, our deserter here didn't get very far when he bolted from the room. Come on SJ, did you really think I would leave the door in the next room wide open for you just to run on out? Give a fellow more credit than that."Marty said, patting the black man on the head before turning his attention back to Dean," Y_ou're _probably asking yourself just what kind of plans I have for you and all, so let's get right down to the nitty gritty. Now pay close attention Dean. Seeing as how you seem to possess a little something known as a "hero complex", I've come up with the perfect way to let you act on it one last time, well sorta... but anyway... We'll call this the "which is the worst way to bite it" part of the experiment. How in the world could this be in any way considered a scientific experiment you ask? It's very much one. My theory is that the human psyche is very fragile and can only take so much before one, say um...Dean for example, just snaps! Turning the victim into a mere shell of what they once were. Up till now, despite your injury and hardships that yourself and the others have faced, you Dean, have remained stoic, brave and unbreakable my young friend. Making you by far the most challenging individual of the lot. To be totally honest, I was really starting to feel a little guilty for involving you in this at all after the amount of energy you put into trying to save my life. And sacrificing yourself by jumping in front of Katie? I was truly moved, but then... I remembered exactly why you were chosen... I'm just rambling again aren't I?"he asked, shaking his head and smiling before he started talking once more.

"Dean, I know this may seem a bit harsh to you, but both of our friends are going to die. The catch is, and here's where the psyche experiment comes in, _you _will hold the power to choose which goes the easy way, and which the hard. I feel this will be what breaks the spirit of our local hero once and for all."

"No."Dean stated, understanding breaking through his pain-hazed mind when Marty held a gun in front of his face."Do...w-what...want...to...m-me."

"No, no. That's not how its going down Dean. That would ruin everything, not to mention be far less entertaining. What is going to happen is this, one of them is going to have to burn to death in a furnace, while the other is going to die by your hand. The choice you must make is _this_, which deserves to suffer the pain of being burned alive, and which deserves a quick and easy death by a bullet fired from the gun that will be in your possession?"

"Fuck you! N-no!."Dean exclaimed, his mind totally clear for the moment due to the horror of what he was told to do, and added adamently." I will not! You'll have to kill me if you think I'm g-gonna murder anybody."

There was no way in hell he was going to. Sure he took out demons and such all the time without hesitation, but this was different. It was not his place to choose how another living person died, and he wouldn't. He'd rather die.

"What fun would be in that Dean?"Marty asked"I'd much rather witness you dying slowly and painfully from your wounds. You know,I'm willing to bet infection and gangrene will set in soon, if it hasn't already. And look at your shirt. Looks like you've started bleeding again. But no, it's not your time to die just that. As a added plus, I do have something very special planned for you later on so it's best to keep you around as long as possible."

"I'm...not...k-killing anybody for your entertainment you b-bastard."

"Very well,I was really hoping we wouldn't have to do this, but you leave me no choice."Marty said, looking over Dean's shoulder and saying with a sigh,"Beth dear, bring our other young friend up here if you don't mind love."

Behind him Dean heard muffled sounds of struggling, and seconds later Rose, or Beth as Marty had called her, appeared beside the chair Dean was strapped to, an arm around the neck of a now gagged Katie with a small pistol aimed at her head.

"Sick f-fuck!"Dean yelled, glaring at Marty with venomous hatred.

"Thats right, I am a sick fuck, and that being said, you needn't have any doubts as to whether I will do what I'm about to say. "Marty replied with a smile before continuing on, " You either A, cooperate by doing as you're told so little miss Katie's brains wont be splattered all over you and the chair you're sitting in while I burn both of those two up anyway to top it off, or B, save one life and lose 2 instead of three. Choice is yours."he finished with a shrug as he walked over and flipped on the furnaces.

God, why not me? Dean pleaded, looking back and forth between the three people who's lives were now his to end.

He couldn't kill an innocent kid, he thought as his eyes landed on Cole, I just couldn't. Or even SJ, no matter how much an ass he is doesn't deserve to die like this

"Why? Why m-me?"he asked Marty."D-don't even...know...you."

"Alright, "the man said with an indulgent grin," I suppose I can reveal why you, and the others also, were my choices for this experiment since I feel we're great pals now and all.

Let me first of all start out with Marty, the person who's identity I decided to borrow. As you've figured out, he was a lawyer. A crooked one, but a lawyer none the less. A year or so before it was closed down my son Robbie was a prisoner at this very place. One night he was drug from his cell by some guards who thought he was behind one of the other inmates being shanked during lunch time, one guard which was Mickey I might add. Normally it wouldn't have been a issue for an inmate to be murdered by another, but this particular victim was one who was an informant to the guards as to the wrongdoings and plans that were being made by the other prisoners. So they killed my boy by beating him to death. This time though, the proper authorities found out about it before they could dispose of Robbie's body. The prison was from there on out closely watched to see if any other abuse was taking place, and closed down not a year later. But Mr. Marty was one of the guilty parties defense attorney, and despite the amount of evidence placed against the guard, he got off scot free. Can you believe that? The guy was even testified against by his fellow guards and still got off due to Marty berating my boys character so badly. After this I took a page from their very on book and decided to hand out justice myself to those behind what happened. Mr Cole there,"he said nodding at the boy,"his father was the judge on Robbie's case, and what better way to pay ole judgie back than by taking from him the same thing he did me.

As for Mickey, I said earlier he was one of the guilty party behind my boys murder. Katie's father was at the time a medical examiner and went before the court and told a flat out lie saying that he found large traces of drugs and alcohol in Robbie's system, thereby collaborating the guards story that he was only killed in self defense. So as with the boy, I decided that it would hurt her parents far worse by murdering their only child."

Taking a slight pause of thought, he continued,"SJ, well I have to say that his participation in this was formed solely due to personal reasons, as was the actual Rose, Casey, and yourself. SJ, for a short time,did to me what he was best at and because of this I lost everything. My home, my wife, my job, hell even my fucking dog. Just because a stupid fool tapped into my life savings and bank accounts, taking all my money and putting me in irreparable financial peril. It did take me several years to track down who was behind it, but finally I traced it back to him. The real Rose was a caregiver for my mother for many years before she died, and when the old hag did kick the bucket she left a small fortune to her. I took her to court, but she testified that I had done nothing to help my mother in any way for all the years she was ailing, and said I did nothing but make mother miserable by trying to squeeze every penny from her that I could, so in the end the jury voted in her favor. Casey was a college student whom was on the jury at my brothers case and was very key in swaying the other jurors into finding him guilty. Which leaves us with you Dean. Why would I involve a person who has been in town for such a short period of time? Because you and that other man working with you were butting your nose into something that was not your business is why! Going around town and asking questions about the murders that have taken place as of late. Making the law enforcement delve deeper into the cases. They were coming dangerously close to tying the victims, who were just random individuals I chose to use as practice for this whole scenario, to me. So I decided that by getting rid of the instigator, I'd get rid of the problem. It was either you or your other young friend, and since I got the distinct feeling that you were the one really running the show, I went to your motel room, drugged you as I'd done the others, and here we all are. So is that explanation enough?"

Son of a bitch, Dean thought. The murders he and Sam had been here investigating hadn't been committed by anything supernatural. No, it was just some crazy bastard with a personal vendetta.

At least one good thing had come out of all this, Marty had chosen him instead of Sam.

"Oh, and I haven't formally introduced myself have I? My name is Bill Lincoln and that lovely woman who has been helping me throughout this is my wife Beth."Bill announced as an afterthought.

The fact he'd just told them he and his wife's real name proved one thing to Dean, regardless of what the man said otherwise, he had no plans on letting any of them leave here alive.

Releasing the strap holding down Deans right arm, Bill laid the gun in his lap and stepped backward, saying,

"Now choose."

"I-I can't do this. I won't."Dean argued, looking at the gun in his lap, but not picking it up.

"Maybe this will help you decide."Bill said, reaching over and flipping the switch that started the convener belts.

"Don't do this. He's just a k-kid."Dean pleaded, something anyone who knew him would have ever fathomed him doing."Don't make me."

Muffled screams were heard from both Cole and SJ as their bodies moved closer to the actual furnace, and as Dean wracked his mind to try and come up with an alternative to doing as Bill ordered, he let his eyes fall on the gun once more, feeling a sliver of hope.

He'd just shoot Bill instead of either of them, then save them both.

"I know what you're thinking Dean."Bills voice broke in smugly, and as if reading his mind, continued on, saying,"And it would be an unwise course of action since my wife has a gun also and would kill you and the girl for pulling such a stunt."

The muffled screams were growing as the teen and SJ's feet actually reached the furnace opening and entered into the flames.

"Uh oh, times running out Dean. Make a choice now, after all do you really want Cole, who I'm sure would be the one you'd choose, to have to die such a slow agonizing death? As a matter of fact, I'm sure he'd thank you for it."

Still Dean did nothing but let the gun lay there.

"Beth honey, kill the girl."Bill ordered, and hearing the sound of her cocking her gun, Dean yelled,

"No! S-stop. I'll d-do it. Just don't hurt h-her."

He had no choice, Cole and SJ were as good as dead anyway.

Though knowing this still didn't stop the tears that came to his eyes as he picked up the gun in his shaking hand and aimed it at the teen.

What would his father think if he saw him now? Sitting here blubbering like some little bitch.

He'd be so ashamed, but Dean couldn't help it. As Bill had predicted, having to do this was the straw that would break this camels back.

"Anytime now Mr. Hero."Bill taunted impatiently.

"I'm so sorry."Dean said, meeting the teens eyes, receiving a look of understanding and resignation in return.

Extended arm shaking, Dean closed his eyes and pulled the trigger, and hearing the sickening sound of bullet hitting flesh, let the gun fall from his hand to the floor.

"Nice shooting there kid. I'm impressed, you got him right in the head."Marty commented as he went over and unbuckled the remaining straps holding Dean to the chair, enabling him to stand or do as he wished.

Dean didn't move for several seconds, just sitting there with his head bowed in shame and disgust at himself for what he'd done, listening as SJ's muffled screams continued, the acrid smell of burnt human flesh filling the room.

Finally the sound stopped, and Bill spoke again,

"Are you just going to sit there all day killer or what?"

Dean rose unsteadily to his feet, not once looking at Cole's body, and walked several feet before his legs gave out and he dropped to his knees, blood from his wound soaking not only his shirt but the jeans he wore also, and once again started crying silently.

"Awww...how touching."Bill said mockingly."Really."

Katie had been made to witness the deaths of the nice boy and the mean old man, but instead of being angry at her friend, a maturity that was unusual for her age allowed her to realize that what Dean had done was not his fault in the least, so she felt sadness and compassion for him.

She struggled to get away from Beth, and finally succeded by stomping the womans foot as hard as she could.

"No, let her go dear."Bill told his wife, who looked so angered by the girls actions that he thought she would surely kill her given the chance.

Using a trick her daddy had taught her, she quickly worked her hands loose from the rope wrapped around it and jerked the duct tape off her mouth.

"Don't cry Dean."she said, reaching and wrapping her arms around the man who still was on his knees. Hugging him tightly."You didn't have no choice."

Sniffing loudly, he did something else he'd never have been caught doing under normal occasion and allowed her to embrace him without pulling away.

"Now for the final round."Bill spoke up from behind them before rearing his foot back and kicking Dean in the back right where the projectile had pierced through.

Dropping with a scream of pain, Dean tried to move as he saw the other mans fist headed for his face, but failed, and was once again knocked out cold.

"Bring her."Bill ordered Beth as he grabbed Deans legs and started dragging him across the room, his wife close behind until he reached what looked like a large black box.

After hefting him up, he then roughly threw Dean into the small space, then turned towards Beth and Katie.

Grabbing the girl he put her kicking and screaming inside also, then put the lid on the box before she could try to escape.

"Oh by the way Katie, you know how I said that some of you might make it out alive? I lied."his muffled voice came through as he locked the many latches.

Finishing this, he pushed the box, which he'd placed on a dolly to make it easier to move, towards a brick wall with a hole in it just large enough for the box, then commenced in bricking the box and its two occupants up until you couldn't tell there had ever been a hole there in the first place.

Wiping his hands, he grabbed up his wife and kissed her deeply, then pulled back and said,"Game over."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Wake up Dean, please wake up."were the first words he heard as he drifted out of the merciful, painless darkness back into harsh reality.

"Please Dean! Wake up!"Katie repeated, shaking him slightly in the total darkness, unseen tears flowing down her cheeks as she silently prayed that he wasn't dead.

Then a second later, she felt him move, followed by a low moan.

"Thank god."she said aloud, grateful for just the small movement and sound.

"Sam? Where are you? I can't...see."he said in a small frightened voice, and she grabbed his hand that was groping aimlessly at the walls and ceiling and said,

"It's okay. I'm here Dean, so please don't be scared." trying to sound as brave as possible.

For several moments he said nothing as he forced his muddled mind to remember what was going on, and needless to say that was no easy task, but finally he spoke, asking in a barely audible whisper,

"Where?" which was the only word he could manage to get out, but Katie knew what he was trying to ask, and replied,

"We're in a box Dean, and I think he bricked us in a wall."she replied, trying not to let here fear show through. She needed to be strong for Dean.

No sound other than Deans labored breathing was heard for several minutes as the words sunk in.

When they had done so, he started frantically feeling around the interior of the box, and that, alone with his full blown fever, made him start panicking then hyperventilating.

"No, no. Don't do that please."Katie pleaded, frightened by his desperate attempts at escaping."Please!"

After several minutes he had depleted him energy and sat back in resignation.

"We'll be okay, you'll see."Katie said confidently, but received no reply.

"Dean? Dean?"she yelled frantically, shaking him lightly, but received no response.

Oh god, please don't let him be dead, she prayed, then leaned her head over and put an ear to his chest, seeing if she could hear a heart beat.

It took a moment but she finally heard it beating slowly.

Snuggling close to him, not caring about the blood on his clothes and pooling on the floor beneath him.

Help will come, I'm sure, she thought mentally reassuring herself.

It just has to.

TBC

Kinda overly angsty chapter, and I realize Dean was a little out of character, but I hope you still enjoyed.

Will update again as soon as possible, so until then. Ta ta, and don't forget to R&R!


	11. Chapter 11

All my reviewers thanks! I hope you like this chapter, and I'm thinking I'll only have 2 more before I'm finished up! Not much excitement here, but hopefully it's okay!

R&R!

Title:The Game

Genre:Drama/Horror/Angst-all those good things!

Characters:Dean and Sam of course.(It's mostly Dean-centric, but has a healthy dose of Sammy)and some OC's.

Rating:PG13(for now)Rating will go up when it gets more graphic.

Summary:Dean finds himself an unwilling participant in a deranged game of survival.

Disclaimer:I own nothing to do with Supernatural.

Ch11

(_SAM And John)_

"Tell me you've got something for me boys,"Bill greeted the officers on scene when he,John, and Sam finally reached their designation. .

"Well sir, so far according to the license we found in the dumpster along with the body, we've identified the victim as one Rose Sheppard, African American female, approximately 56 years of age. Until the autopsy is performed it's hard to be be 100 positive, but judging by the decomposition it's a safe bet that the body has been here for quite a while. "A young officer replied, reading off of a small pad he held in his hands.

"Any determination as to the cause of death?"the detective questioned.

"The victim had a pair of pantyhose around her neck when found, so I'd speculate she died of asphyxiation."he replied.

"Has forensics arrived yet?"Bill asked the other man, who nodded and said,

"Yes sir they, and Mcginley are over with the body right now."he replied.

"Thanks Shaun."Bill said with a nod to the young officer, then turned towards the 2 Winchesters and said,"Okay, lets go."

They silently followed him into a alleyway behind the closed eating establishment where they found a cordoned off area that was milling with Police officers, medical personel, and others that no doubt contained members of media, each hoping to get the scoop before others.

"Bill." a dark haired man wearing glasses who looked to be not much older than Sam, and was bent over the victims body, said in acknowledgment, nodding his head at the detective, looking up from his grisly task at hand.

"Ted."he said in reply, and noticing the man's curious gaze trained on the 2 men accompanying him, decided to go ahead and introduce them."Sam Winchester, Agent John Malone, this is Ted Mcginley our towns medical examiner."

"Ahh...the FBI. 'Nough said."Ted commented as if that one revelation alone explained their presence to his satisfaction, and flashing a quick grin added,"Pleasure to meet you both. I'd shake your hand, but well...I really don't think you'd want to do that right now." holding up his gloved, gore covered hands to accentuate his meaning.

"Has the time of death been determined as of yet?"John asked, jumping right in with his own queries before Bill had the chance.

"Well, taking in the rate of decomposition, adding in the factor that the heat this time of year would play. Not to mention she was found in a dumpster which have all kinds of little creepy crawlies and such that can do some major damage, my unofficial guess would be she's been dead 4, maybe 5 days."he replied, tilting his head thoughtfully as he spoke, adding afterwards," I'll be able to give you a more exact time after the autopsy of course."

"That would put her death right around the time of the others abductions. Give or take a day."John commented.

"If so, maybe they're _all _dead. After all, why kill one victim then take the others hostage? What would be the point in that?" Ted asked, looking up once more, a look of confusion on his face."Who ever is behind this probably has them stowed around town in different dumpsters and such, just waiting like grisly Christmas presents for some unsuspecting recipient to unwrap."

"They're not all dead!"Sam, who had remained silent for most of the car trip there after his earlier vision, spoke up angrily, with a snarl on his face as he glared at the man.

"Whoa...hey look buddy, no offense was intended, I was just offering a suggestion that..."Ted started, taken aback by the young mans response to his comment, raising his hands in surrender.

"I know what you were suggesting, and it's way off base. The others were kidnapped and are being held somewhere. They are not dead!"Sam interrupted him once more, getting strange glances from all those around due to his outburst.

"Sam,a word alone for a moment if you don't mind."his father said, giving Bill and the others a shrug and apologetic look as he grabbed his sons shoulder and pulled him away from the others.

"Do me a favor Ted, leave the speculating to us and we'll leave the medical examining to you. Think that's possible?"John vaguely took in Bill saying sternly to the younger man as they walked away.

"Look Sammy, I know you're worried about your brother. So am I, but we can't have you doing this right now." he said in a hushed tone to his son when they were safely out of range.

"Doing _what?_ Calling out that asshole on saying that they're all dead? That _Dean's_ dead?"Sam hissed in reply, rubbing his temples once more, trying to will away the fierce headache that was always left behind as a reminder after one of his visions."This is all such a fucking waste of time dad. Like you said yourself, this yokel police force is getting nowhere fast, so I think it's time we took things in our own hands."

"Listen to me Sam, if not for these yokels we wouldn't be able to get within a mile of this crime scene right now, and we don't need you falling apart and jeopardizing this for us. Do you understand me?" John argued firmly in reply, putting his hands on his youngest's shoulders while looking him unflinchingly in the eyes.

"But you didn't see or feel what I did. It was like, like... I was there with him, that I was him, and he's _dying_ dad. If we don't find him soon it might be too late to save him."Sam replied vehemently, tears welling in his eyes at the memory of his brothers pain and suffering.

John could barely stand to see the sadness and desperation in Sam's eyes, so he looked away before he got upset himself, then whispered,"I am well aware of the urgency of this Sam, but being out here where we can be part of this hands on is preferable to being locked up isn't it? Better than having the only news we hear about any progress being made be when somebody delivers our meals? And yes, before you even say it, right now they may be buying the whole FBI farce, but how long do you think they'll continue doing so with me, instead of throwing you back in the slammer for your actions, taking you aside like a child to chastise your behavior every 5 minutes? "

"I suppose you're right."Sam, sighing deeply, agreed finally a few seconds later.

"There's no suppose to it son. I _am_ right, and you know it, so keep your shit together and don't make me have to do this again. Alright?"

"Yes sir."Sam replied, his eyes cast downwards as he started to walk back towards where Bill still stood talking to the medical examiner.

"One more thing."John's voice stopped him as he placed a hand on his shoulder once more."How long have you been having these visions? Was this the first time?"

"No, it wasn't the first time dad, and you may have known that already if you'd just picked up the phone and called instead of avoiding us."Sam replied in barely a whisper over his shoulder, not even looking at him.

"I...I don't know what to say other than I'm sorry."John said quietly, his voice relaying the heart felt truth in his words.

"Like you said earlier, there's a time and place for us discussing our personal issues, and this isn't it."Sam said in response, continuing his walk to the others when his father finally let his hand drop from his shoulder.

When they got back to the others they were greeted by Bill saying,"Well, I just received a call from Sasha, and it seems she's found a connection between our victim, the lawyer and the MP."

"Being?"John asked.

"Mrs. Sheppard is a private care nurse. One of her previous clients was a Marge Burk who's son was murdered in the same military prison where Mickey Richards was a guard. As a matter of fact ,it was the very case that he was incarcerated for, but that's not all. Guess who the lawyer was that got one of the MP's off Scot free."

"Marty Burgess?"Sam replied.

"Bingo."

"Then I think it's time we payed Mrs. Burke a visit to see if she can give us any further information."John ordered, a renewed hope filling him as he took charge of the situation.

"That would be hard to do considering she died over 2 years ago."the medical examiner chimed in.

"Wha...? No."Sam said softly, obviously crestfallen.

"Great. The one possible solid lead we have and she's dead, but we're still going to find them Sam."John stated with a shake of his head, glancing quickly at his son, reaching over and squeezing his arm.

"Did I mention that Mrs. Burke had another son also?"Bill asked, raising one eyebrow, looking thoughtfully at the two men with many questions forming in his mind.

The Agent Holcombe giving the young mans arm a squeeze of support was a far cry from the one who had been only hours earlier been treating the kid like shit. He seemed like he was truly bothered over the news of the woman's death also, on a more personal level than he tried to let on.

"Do we have an address on the son?"John asked hopefully, breaking into Bills train of thought, while Sam raised his head and looked at the detective expectantly at the question.

Bill decided that he'd go with his gut instinct once more, which hadn't really been wrong earlier, and let this strange behavior go for now.

"That would be a yes."he answered after a pause.

"Well detective, I believe that may be the first positive news I've heard all day."John said with a sigh, running his hand through his hair, reminding Sam once again, who happened to be looking at him at that very moment, so much of his older brother.

The many similarities he'd noticed between them in just the few hours he'd been in his father's presence that day was truly amazing.

"The address?"John prodded Bill, who had been staring at him silently without continuing his words.

"It's 6428 Taylor's Rd. Apartment 30A."the detective replied.

Tim once again spoke up obviously listening to them talk as he continued bagging and tagging anything around the body that might be of importance,"That's in the rundown section of town isn't it?"he asked, and continued on before anyone could reply," Which is quite surprising since now that I think about it, I recall reading an article on Mrs. Burke after her death stating how well to do she was. I think it was about how she left a pretty good chunk of cash to the hospital in her will to go towards the new cancer ward they were building."

"And your point is?"Bill asked, obviously annoyed by him butting in again.

"Well Bill, my point is this, since she left so much money to a charity, one would surely think she'd leave at least an equal amount to her only remaining child also. So why, not even 2 years later, would he be living in the middle of the most criminally active, decrepit part of town?"

"Who knows, maybe she didn't like her kid. It's not too uncommon nowadays."Bill replied after a thoughtful pause before turning towards the anxiously waiting Winchesters and asking,"I'm going to phone in for some backup just in case we might for some reason be in need of it, and then we'll head out and pay this Mr. Cillian Burke a visit. That sound good to you Agent?" he asked, not wanting to overstep his authority by calling the shots after John had stated he was in charge earlier.

"Just what I was about to suggest myself Bill."John replied with a nod, and the three of them walked back to Bills cruiser and after the detective radioed in their destination and requested backup, they headed towards 6428 Taylors Rd.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Boy, Tim wasn't kidding when he said this was the shitty part of town."Sam commented with a low whistle as they turned into the road Cillian's apartment complex was located on, now talking much more and adding his own opinions in quite freely since his headache had totally dissipated.

Not to mention he was experiencing the first ray of hope that he'd felt for several days.

"Yeah, we average at least 5 major drug busts in this area a year, not to mention the death rate for these parts. Damn sure not somewhere I'd like to lay my roots in."Bill said in agreement as they pulled into the complex lot to find another cruiser with Sasha and officer Timm's awaiting their arrival.

"I don't suppose there's any way I can convince you to remain out here out of your own free will is there?"the detective asked Sam as he opened the trunk of his car and pulled out and put on a Kevlar vest.

"He's going with us."John spoke up automatically, getting shocked looks from all 3 of the others.

"No offense Agent, but even though he may be in your custody, he's still a civilian and it's against code to allow him to be put in harms way."Sasha, ever the defiant one, spoke up in protest.

John wanted nothing more than to say to her, yes, be it he was your typical civilian that would be true, but he's anything but, and I'd trust him with my life before I would you. Instead he gave her a steely glance and said,"Are you questioning my orders Officer? You do know that's grounds for immediate dismissal do you not? He _is_ going in also and that's final, and unless you'd like me to put that very action in motion, you'll not argue with me about this any longer."

"Here kid, put this on."Bill ordered, tossing a Kevlar vest at the young man, and thought once more that something was definitely off about the true nature of the Agent and Sam's relationship when John handed the kid a gun also without hesitation.

One minute he's berating him and the next supplying him with a weapon. Not something one would do if they were truly concerned over any attempts a prisoner might make to escape.

"Sasha, you and Aaron go round back in case Mr. Burke is our man and attempts to make a run for it when he realizes we've figured him out."Bill ordered, and looking at Sam and John said,"We'll go in the front way and try to do this peacefully if possible, after all we could be hitting another dead end with this."

Each of them nodded, and after telling them all to be careful, they split into the 2 assigned groups and slowly made their way towards the section that the man lived in.

"Okay, here we are. I'll knock and you 2 stay out of sight until I give you a signal that you are needed."Bill said. Standing out of view on each side of the door to Burke's apartment, Sam and John waited with breath held for things to happen one way or another.

"Mr. Burke, this is Detective Bill Sanders with the police, and I'd like to have a word with you."he said loudly through the closed door after knocking and receiving no reply.

Still nothing, and Bill tried once more,"Mr. Burke, open up, all we want to do is ask you a few questions."

Nothing.

"Must not be at home, and since we have no warrant there isn't much we can do without being accused of breaking and entering."Bill stated, shrugging helplessly at Sam and John.

Instead of obeying Bill, Sam, who'd had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach ever since they'd entered the hallway out side the mans apartment, walked wordlessly up to the door and without pause kicked it open with a single blow from his foot, saying,"Fuck a warrant."while doing so.

"Hey! That's way out of line Sa..."Bill started, following the other 2 men inside despite his own words, but cut his own sentence off midway through when he caught his first glimpse of the interior of Burke's home. "Well I'll be a son of a bitch."he muttered in disbelief as he took in the wall of the living area, which was the first part they encountered.

It was covered with photos and snap shots taken with a poloroid camera.

100's of then, each pictures of all the kidnapping victims.

"Dean."Sam said as he walked over to look at the section that was all his brother, taken at various times throughout their stay in the town, reaching out and touching a closeup of his face.

Sasha and Timms had joined them also after becoming positive no one was gonna try and run, and the woman said a few minutes later after walking over to a closed door and cautiously opened it, announcing a few seconds later,."Um...I think you might want to take a look at this fellas."

All 3 men joined , and saw to their surprise it was full of monitors. Each one displaying a different room which were very dimly lit and hard to make out.

"What the hell?"John asked, making out that one room had a carousel in it, and another contained tables and every type of tool you could imagine.

"It's where he's keeping them."Sam stated, feeling without a doubt that he was right.

"Then where are they?"Timms asked, seeing each screen had not one person on it.

"Lets check those recorders and see if he was dumb enough to actually tape all this."John ordered noticing each monitor had a VCR hooked to it also.

He had been, and they watched in awe as the events that had taken place thus far were slowly played out for them on the monitors.

First the whole introductions to one another amongst the victims played out, then seeing first the death of Casey, then Marty.

What really caught the Winchesters eyes was when they came to the part about the carosoul.

They watched in horror as Dean jumped in front of the little girl and was skewered to the wall by a projectile that came flying from some area the camera angle did not pick up.

"Oh my god."Sam whispered, tears in his eyes as he watched his brother scream and struggle to get the thing out of him. Finally the man whom they'd identified as Mickey punched Dean, knocking him out cold before he and 2 others carefully pulled him from the wall.

"Your brother."Sasha stated in disbelief. He'd been telling the truth the whole time, and she'd given him nothing but grief, and added earnestly,"I'm sorry for not believing you Sam. Really."

"S'okay."he muttered, not taking his eyes from the screen as one by one they watched each of the tapes in fast forward, stopping only when they came upon anything out of the ordinary.

"Stop it there."Bill ordered when they reached the part where Dean and the others had found the body.

"Okay, continue."he said after looking closely for several minutes.

"Again, stop it again."Sam requested when the form of a person wearing a George Bush mask appeared in the picture.

Silently they watched and listened as he first revealed himself to be Marty, then as he shot Mickey.

"Marty? Wasn't he the one who was killed earlier?"Timms asked in confusion.

"I'm willing to bet you anything that dead body they found was the real Marty."Bill stated as the scene continued on before them."And that the man who played him is Burke."

"So he murdered Marty so he could take his place? But why?"Sasha questioned aloud.

"To gain their trust I would guess."Bill replied.

"And that black lady, she's the one who took Rose's place."Timms added.

"Hush!"Sam ordered after seeing his brother kicking the gun from Marty's hand then commence to beat the shit out of him, that was until the fake Rose came up behind him to hit him with a shovel.

Not thinking it could get any worse, Sam was proven wrong when the scene changed to the one of his brother being strapped to a chair, and they all watched in disbelief as Burke made him kill the younger boy while his girlfriend or whatever she was held a gun to the little girl, whom Dean obviously had bonded withs, head.

"That sick bastard."John said angrily, imagining how badly it had hurt his boy mentally to have to do such a thing, and allowed a tear to escape his eye when he saw Dean drop to the ground sobbing after being untied.

"Does that area look familiar to any of you?"Bill asked after the tapes ended with Dean once again being knocked out and drug out of sight by the man.

At first none answered, but suddenly Timms spoke up thoughtfully, saying in reply,"Wait a minute, that crematorium looks familiar. Oh yeah! It's the old military prison! I remember thinking how odd it was that the prison had one, so it really stuck in my mind."

"Lets go."John ordered, grabbing Sam's arm and pulling him towards the door, now having all the information required for them to finish this themselves.

Bill wasn't about to let this happen though, so he and his 2 team members followed right behind them.

"We're coming son. Just hold on."John said as he and Sam got inside Bills cruiser, which he'd for some reason or other left the keys in, and took off.

Halfway there, John almost ran off the road when Sam suddenly let out a yell of pain and grabbed his head once more.

TBC

Next up:More Dean angst, and possibly the reunion of him, his dad and brother. So hope ya keep reading!


	12. Chapter 12

I owe ya'll a big ole apology for waiting so long to update, but I've had a lot going on with starting yet another new job, arguing with my hubby, and just loosing inspiration for a while for some reason or another. I really hope this update is okay, it may seem a bit rushed, but hopefully its passable because I really want to finish this one. Although it won't make up for the long wait I'm sure. Please R&R, and once again, SORRY!!!

Christie

Title:The Game

Genre:Drama/Horror/Angst-all those good things!

Characters:Dean and Sam of course.(It's mostly Dean-centric, but has a healthy dose of Sammy)and some OC's.

Rating:PG13(for now)Rating will go up when it gets more graphic.

Summary:Dean finds himself an unwilling participant in a deranged game of survival.

Disclaimer:I own nothing to do with Supernatural.

CH12

_(Dean)_

This was all kinda humorous to Dean in a very perverse definition of the word. I mean come on, bleeding to death or suffocating from lack of air, not to mention being bricked up in a wall wasn't the way he'd ever imagined to meet his maker.

Sure he'd experienced many oddities in his days. Which few would never believe, _even _if they were actually there to experience them. But this, well it was for lack of a better description...to much like one of the B-rate horror/slasher flicks that his little bro was so fond of, to be real.

Being killed in the final battle against the fire demon who'd killed his mother? Yes, _that_ was fathomable. Having his throat ripped out by a werewolf? Yeah, he could go there. Or even being pecked to death by a possessed mutant chicken would be an acceptable option. All pretty reasonable, _real_, ways to bite it in Deans opinion.

Nice, quick, warrior deaths. Deaths with a _cause_. But this? To die by the hands, or handiwork to be more exact, of a deranged fellow human being, was not something he'd ever have seen coming.

This slow,painful exit made him feel nothing but shame.

Shame at what his father would think if he knew that, after all the training he'd been given, the hunting he'd done, the monsters and demons alike he'd destroyed with the ease of one accidentally running over a possum in the middle of the night, he had ultimately been outsmarted by some middle-aged man wearing a cheap ass, crappy George Bush mask.

And the worse, even more shameful of his sins was the fact that he'd killed a kid. An innocent, smart mouthed teenager who's rebellious attitude at such an age had reminded Dean all too much of his baby brother.

_Sammy_...just the thought, the mental picture that popped into his mind of his brother, granted permission to a very much hated and unwanted tear to leak from the corner of his eye.

Gah! You're such a fucking puss, crying like a little bitch!,what remained of the unflappable person he'd _been_ yelled silently in disgust at him from within his mind.

Still, he didn't bother to try and raise a hand to wipe the offensive drop of water away. After all, more than one of them had fallen in the past hour against his wishes, so why stop now? What would be the point?

Mind-numbing pain, deep guilt, and the whole dying issue in general had a mighty negative effect on the hardened "soldier", and since being forced to shoot Cole, the tear count was higher than his fuddled mind could keep track of , so it would just be stupid to worry about one more at this point, would it not?

He hadn't even the ability to keep up the facade of strength and hope for the little girl entombed in the wall with him any longer. Hell, most times he wasn't even aware of her presence, though she sat huddled up right next to him.

He was just too far gone, and only occasionally remembered through the torturous mental and physical pain where he was, and what had led to him being there. Even then, during those brief glimpses of clarity, he actually found himself praying for the darknesses release once more.

_She_ wasn't about to let that happen though.

Damn were kids persistent! Katie's voice, annoying yet at the same time angelic, kept breaking into his mind every so often. Reminding him that he was not alone, and his was not the only life to be lost here, while simultaneously feeding him words of encouragement.

Was she even really a little kid? Hmm, maybe she was a midget or something..._Nah_, but, she seemed far too mature for a child.

Small child or not, truth was he would surely have given up already if not for her.

xxxxxxx

Katie had, believe it or not, fallen asleep for a while, though she was sure it hadn't been for long, and had woken up with her face plastered to something solid and wet. For a split second she had started to panic, forgetting due to her still groggy mind where she was and whom she was with.

Then as quickly as it had been lost, the events of the past days came rushing back into her mind, making her realize the wet substance she felt was likely a mixture of the blood and sweat that had continued to soak through her friend, no... her _hero's_, shirt as she'd napped, the solid object she rested against his chest.

Peeling her face away, she released a small yawn and lifted her head, noticing in the process that the air now seemed much thinner than when she and Dean had first been placed inside what could very well be their final resting place.

Thinking back again to the horror movie she'd snuck and watched, she remembered the one particular part where the man who'd been buried had awoken to find himself in the small coffin, struggling for breath. Because of this Katie knew that the thinning atmosphere was caused due to the fact that they were running out of air.

Oddly enough, the little girl, though admittedly scared, didn't panic or start screaming out of desperation to be saved as most others her age would have at this revelation. No... maybe it was from shock, disbelief of the whole surreal situation she'd experienced these past days, stubborn refusal to acknowledge all odds were against survival, or just plain old childish optimism, but she found herself strangely unconcerned with her own well-being.

Truthfully she hadn't much doubt, not from the very beginning, after the initial shock of awaking in a scary place surrounded by strangers had worn off of course, that her mommy, daddy, or someone else perhaps, would find her before it was too late.

Not too late for her, but what about Dean?

Looking at the direction she was pretty sure Deans face was, she frowned while squinting into the darkness, but was unable to make out anything.

Had he made any noises? Was he breathing?

Dead people were cold right? Had he been cold when she'd woken up? She tried to remember, hesitant to reach out and touch him again.

Possibly finding that he had died while she had been asleep dreaming of being a princess riding a unicorn, or whatever it had been, was not an appealing thought.

No, Dean's not dead! Don't even think that, she chastised herself angrily. He's just napping, so all you have to do is reach out and give him a little shake...

Trying to convince her hand to do as her mind ordered, she momentarily thought back to the day all this had started.

Her mommy had always said she was an excellent judge of character, and people were always amazed at how she was never wrong about any impressions she received, even if she'd only met the person it was towards once. She'd even been taken to talk to a special doctor more than once because of this "uncanny ability to point out the bad and good" as her daddy had described it once.

Because of this, she'd known from when she'd first laid eyes on him, that the cute man who'd been the last of them to awaken in the first room, was something special.

Not because he'd been kind and sweet to her from the very beginning when everyone else had thought of her as nothing more than a nuisance, and not because he'd gone and saved her life, not once, but 2 times in the past days either.

It had been _despite_ all this that she'd known he was different than the others.

That he didn't belong there with them.

When he'd shot Cole, it had been because he had no choice. To stop that mean old woman from hurting her, saving her life for the second time in the process, he'd done what he must. She hadn't once thought badly of him for it and knew that Cole wouldn't have either.

He'd have died anyway, and it went unsaid that the gun was definitely preferable to option 2.

She had been very sad he'd died of course, and had even felt bad about that other mean man being killed too, but it had all seemed like it had been meant to happen.

The scene that had taken place had been an unavoidable evil.

Dean had gotten so upset over it though, and she wished that if she was "a very special and gifted little girl", which was the only diagnosis the doctor had given her parents, she could have used some of this specialness to make her new friend understand things as she did.

Gosh what she would give to be able to go back in time and never touch that dang music box though! Special or not, she was still only a kid, and after laying eyes on the tiny carousel... the temptation to touch the fragile object had been too great to resist.

It had almost seemed like there was a little voice in her head egging her on, saying,_Touch me Katie. Touch me._

Then, she'd been soo mad, yet genuinely surprised, when she'd seen the kindly old woman pick something up and whack Dean in the head just when he'd been about to stop the bad man.

She should have picked up on her badness, but hadn't... To kick that bitc...no, _Rose_ hard in the leg for acting like she was on their side when she really wasn't, was another thing she'd very much enjoy doing if given the chance.

_Dean_...her thoughts came back to the task at hand, and knew whether she wanted to or not, she had to find out if he was still alive and do whatever she could to help him if he was.

Hesitantly she forced her hand to move, and reached out, feeling around in the darkness until she finally came in contact with Deans chest.

No, definitely not cold, he actually seemed really warm from what she could tell, which surprised her because his shirt was wet and all.

_Duh_ Katie, your daddy's a doctor, so you should know that when somebody's sick, they get hot and sweat a lot, she admonished herself.

So he's not dead, she thought happily, but then decided that she had to make sure he was breathing before she could actually be sure of this, after all they were in a little box where it was hot, and maybe he hadn't been dead long...

Reaching up to where his face surely had to be, her hand stopped midway when he suddenly let out a shuddering, labored breath, a little wet drop of something falling onto her finger before she'd even reached his face.

He _was_ alive, but...

In her whole life, she'd never seen a grown man cry before except her daddy.

_That_ time she'd walked into her parents bedroom unannounced the day after her grammy's funeral and found him sitting on the bed holding a picture of his mother, but seeing her standing in the doorway, he'd quickly recovered.

Swiping the moisture from his eyes, he'd placed the picture back in its spot on the table and smiled, then held his arms out to her. She'd ran quickly over, hugged him, he'd kissed her on the top of her head, then started tickling her.

After that the moment had all but been forgotten, but she had understood that her father's had been tears of grief, yet also of relief that his mother, who'd been sick for as long as Katie could remember, was no longer suffering.

Deans crying was different.

Before he'd been hurt, he'd reminded her of a mixture of her big brother and her uncle Bob, whom everyone called Sarge because he was in the army. They'd never ever cry in front of other people, and even after being hurt Dean hadn't either, but...then the whole Cole thing had happened, and he'd just broke down.

_Given_, she hadn't known him long at all, but still she'd be willing to bet her favorite stuffed unicorn Nebby, that he would never have wanted anyone, especially a little kid, to witness any show of weakness, and this very much fell into that category.

Maybe its because I'm wrong, and unlike me he realizes that we are gonna die, so shouldn't I be crying too?

It seemed like a good idea, with the air growing thinner by the second and Dean, her knight in shining armor like in all the bedtime stories her mommy read her, hurt and sad.

NO! she shook her head in resolution, someone will find me, _us_, in time.

Now all she had to do was make him believe this too

"Dean?"she questioned, her lower lip quivering despite her plans to be a big girl when she heard his breath hitch, followed by a pained cough and sob. "Dean?"she repeated a moment later, when his coughing had finally ceased and other than his labored breathing, he grew silent once more.

To her surprise he actually responded to her this time, but what he said, though spoken clearly enough, confused her greatly.

"M'sorry Sammy."

"What? My name's not Sammy, it's Katie."she replied, her face scrunched in confusion."And you didn't do nothing to be sorry for. It was my fault, member?"

"S-shoulda... never came... and ruined...y-your life with Jess when...dad l-left."he continued on between hitching breaths, oblivious to her words."D-didn't want t-to be alone. I was s-selfish Sammy. S-selfish"

"Dean, I don't know what you're talkin 'bout. It's me... _Katie_, not this Sammy person, so please stop calling me that. You're...you're _scaring_ me."she admitted in a quivering voice, the fact he was thinking she was somebody else pounding into her small head the seriousness of his condition even more.

"K-katie?"he questioned a moment later after a long pause.

"Yeah, that's right. It's me Katie-bug."she replied, hearing in the darkness his movements as he put his hands out and felt around the confines of their prison.

During his explorations, two things happened, first of which was, he started panicking upon discovering the smallness of the area and the thickness of the air, which on top of his already impeded respiratory issues, made him feel as if he was trying to breath air through a tiny straw.

Something that not many others knew about ,and he had in countless circumstances been able to hide completely, played into this also. He was claustrophobic. Had been ever since he'd went on a hunt with his father many years earlier and accidentally fallen into an old half-ass boarded over well. Though only trapped for an hour and a half at the most before his dad had found him, it had seemed like a life time, and had left its mark on him permanently.

The second thing that happened involved Katie also.

Suddenly, as silly and as impossible as it seemed, she had the overwhelming feeling that they were no longer alone in the box. That someone else, maybe not physically but mentally, had joined them somehow. This, this... presence, didn't feel bad though. No, it was good and by being here, would help her and Dean.

The dangerously close to hyperventilating Dean hadn't seemed to notice it though , his hands flailing and groping around everywhere, only succeeding in upsetting his injuries even more in the process.

Do something, Katie ordered herself.

"It's okay, I'm here too."she said, grabbing one of his hands firmly in her own."You're not alone Dean."

At these words, as suddenly as it had come, the presence departed.

Katie hoped that whoever it had been was able to get enough out of the visit to do some good.

If nothing else had came from it, she was happy to feel that Dean was now noticeably calmer.

"Every thing's gonna be fine Dean."she continued rambling on confidently to him."Somebody'll find us soon. I just know it."

"Sam."was the one word he spoke in reply to this, and her momentary hope crumpled instantly at the fact he still didn't realize who she was.

"No Dean. It's _Katie,_ not Sam."she corrected him, adding,"you just have to try and remember. I know you can do it."

"I d-do remem...remember!"he protested, the force behind his objection stronger than she thought he could produce, as he argued on."H-he was here."

"No he wasn't. It's just..."she started to object when a clarity to the meaning behind his words clicked in her mind, and she questioned."Oh...is that who _it_ was?"

"Y-yeah."he replied."I think s-so."

Now an adult might not have excepted this seemingly coocoo declaration, but she didn't doubt it for a second. Instead the first thing she thought was, _Wow, whoever this Sam person was must be even more "gifted" than I am to be able to do what had just happened._

"Who is he? Who's Sam?"she asked him, still clasping his hand tight.

"Little b-brother."

"That makes a lot of sense, no wonder you're so nice to me."Katie stated."You have a little brother."

"Not t-that little."Dean said in response to this."Taller than m-me."

"Ohh...I bet he's not cuter than you though."she offered up to this.

"Not b-by a long-shot."he replied, with what sounded like a chuckle.

"You got's to stop the bleeding."Katie announced after accidentally putting her hand in the growing puddle around him.

"D-don't care. Dying."

"Well you ain't dead yet are you? "she asked angrily."Don't you think its at least worth trying?"

"Guess s-so."

"Good, now here's my robe, so use it."she ordered handing over the object that had covered her Scooby Doo pajama set.

In his defense, he did try and do as she requested, but it ultimately proved a waste of time and energy.

5 minutes later his body finally decided it couldn't take the trauma and blood loss any longer and started convulsing.

"No! No!"she screamed, feeling helpless to help him, putting her hand on his shoulder as she pleaded with him."Please don't die! Please!"

She never would have believed or expected what came next.

The presence from earlier returned, but this time it was _her_ that it suddenly entered.

Oh well, here goes nothing, she thought allowing the strange feeling to wash over her completely, and said aloud,"Sam, or whoever you are, we're in a big ole warehouse or something, the bad man said it used to be an army place. Dean's s...sick so please h...hurry. P-please!"she finished with a sob as it left her body. She'd been unable to stop her voice from breaking in the end when as quickly as it had started shaking, Deans body stilled beneath her hand.

Laying her head on his chest, she heard a faint beat, and released a sigh of relief.

"They're coming Dean. So just hold on a little longer."

"Here we are, this is the place."John announced, pulling his truck to a stop in front of the old prison.

"Yeah, lets go."Sam replied, already getting out and arming himself to go inside.

"Sam, wait a minute."his father ordered.

"We don't have a minute dad, or were you not listening when I told you what the kid said?" Sam questioned in reply, moving away from his father and making his way to the large doors leading inside.

"Yes, I was listening Sam! Just, I want you to promise me that no matter what we find inside, you'll hold it together, okay?" John requested, now armed also and standing side by side with his son.

Sam turned on him angrily, giving him a quick venomous glare, as he asked,."You want me to hold it together if I go in and find my big brother _dead_? Fuck that!" and with these words the youngest of the Winchester's pushed open the large unlocked steel door, and fearlessly barreled forward.

With an overwhelming pride and respect for his son, John entered directly behind.

He and Sam communicated wordlessly with familiar hand signals they'd used many times before when they, along with Dean, had hunted together.

Fanning out in separate directions, the plan was to use the object of surprise to sneak up on the mastermind behind this before he even realized they were there.

This plan, was of course, blown to hell in a handbag when seconds later the local police force arrived outside with sirens blaring.

"Motherfucker!" John hissed angrily, surprised at the townspeople's incompetence.

"Is the suspect still on site?"Bill whispered after he and the other 3 members of his task force entered the large room, with weapons raised.

"I don't know. Why don't you just yell out and ask since you already announced our presence with the sirens?"Sam snapped sarcastically in reply.

Bill said nothing too this at first, glaring unseen daggers at Timms, the idiot behind the siren.

"You're right kid, a bad move on our part, but what's done is done You want to stand here and argue about it all night or go and save your brother?"Bill finally asked in reply.

Sam merely grunted, which Bill took as a yes.

"Alright, we now must assume they know we're here, so needless to say, remain on guard."he stated in a whisper just in case."We'll split into groups and fan out. Kid, you stick with Sasha and Timms in this room..."

"No, he's with me."John stated automatically, his tone leaving zero room for argument.

"Okay then, Sasha, you and I will move in behind John and Sam. Timms, you and Bloom cover our rear. We should have backup arriving soon, but we don't have time to wait, so are we all ready for this?"

"Yes sir."

"Oh yeah."

"Let's do it."were the replies he received.

With this, he turned back towards John and Sam and found much to his ire that they were already gone.

"Now I know he's not FBI."Bill mumbled beneath his breath as he and Sasha moved forward through the dark rooms."They'd never put themselves in the line of fire without having a couple'a us ahead of them for shielding."

"What's that sir?"Sasha whispered in question from across the room.

"Nothing."he hissed, grunting as he tripped over something in the floor in front of him.

"Bill?"Sasha queried worriedly.

"A body."he replied, shining his flashlights beam onto the floor, illuminating the mangled form of Casey.

"Must've took her down."his partner replied, remembering how she'd died from the tape they'd watched.

"Keep moving."he ordered, trying not to show the nausea he felt from the sight.

Luckily, the psycho who'd kidnapped Dean and the others apparently found no reason to relock any of the doors after they'd been opened, so Sam and John had successfully maneuvered through the passages and dead bodies scattered here and there throughout the maze like building, with unexpected ease.

Not five minutes after they'd first entered, father and son had reached the door of the room it had taken Dean and the others days to accomplish.

"Should we wait on Barney Fife and the rest of his idiot crew?"Sam whispered to his father.

Lacking the abilities that the Winchesters had, said people were about 2 minutes or so behind them, which meant if they did wait, it would be more time than Dean may have.

"I think not son."John replied bluntly, and Sam smiled a little despite himself, and with a nod of his head, John said, "So lets do this. On three, 1, 2, 3!"

Sam raised his gun, adrenaline, mixed with fear of what they might find, pumping through his body, and rushed into the room behind his father.

A middle-aged man was first to come into their sights, and he immediately tried to dash past them, a look of surprise and disbelief on his face.

"Stop, put your hands up where I can see them, then turn the fuck around!"John ordered, and when the man looked like he was not going to comply, he added in an angry growl." Move another fucking step and I will blow your damn head off."his weapon leveled on the man, very much meaning what he'd just said.

"Who are you?" the man asked, turning slowly around." The police?"

"Oh you're gonna _wish_ I was you bastard."John hissed in reply."Sam?" he then asked loudly, not taking his eyes off the man, knowing his boy was casing the room in an attempt to locate Dean.

"I c-can't..."Sam replied, looking frantically around the room, he knew the man had walled his brother up or something, but couldn't find where, and turned towards him with a helpless look.

Just in time to see a woman emerge from a previously unseen door in the wall, and dash towards his father, a large butcher type knife raised above her head.

"Dad!" he yelled in warning, as he simultaneously, without a moments hesitation, raised his gun and shot the woman.

"No!!"the mastermind behind the abductions yelled in protest as she dropped dead to the floor, then whipped his head in Sam's direction and snarled."You killed her you little bastard!"

Strangely, Sam felt no remorse for it, though normally he'd have been wracked with guilt over killing something that was not already dead in some form or another.

"That's right, he did, and you're next if you don't tell me right now where Dean and the kid are."John yelled at the man.

"The way I see it, as soon as I _do_ tell you, I'm dead anyway, so why rush things?" was the mans shrugged reply.

Now this statement was true in the matter that he would be unable to tell them where he'd put Dean if he was dead, so admittedly, no real harm would come to him until he revealed his and the kids location, but...unluckily for him, not a moment after the words had left his mouth, Sam, who was still reeling from what had just happened and overcome by the fact they'd yet to find Dean, leaned against the wall directly behind him, letting his head rest against it with a thunk.

Then he heard it...

"_Hello! Help us please!_"he barely heard a voice yelling from behind him.

"Hey! Is someone there?"he yelled back, putting his ear to the wall.

John, though keeping the gun trained on his target, let his eyes dart back and forth between the man and his youngest boy, silently praying that he'd found Dean.

"Y-yes! Oh my god, yes!"Sam faintly heard yelled in reply.

He then stepped back and kicked the wall, the thin drywall giving away rather easily beneath the blow, revealing to them rooms occupants a large wooden box.

"There _was_ a door you know."the man stated after watching the young man kick in the wall, but was ignored as John kept his eyes on Sam's actions.

"Shut the fuck up."John growled, glaring at him momentarily before looking back at his son.

Sam drug the box from within the wall, then tried unsuccessfully to pull the nailed on lid off.

"Dammit!" he yelled in frustration, then put his hand on the box briefly, saying loudly," I'm here Dean, So just hold on! I'll have you out in just a second."

"Hurry!"the child's voice yelled in reply to this as he searched for something to pry the top off of the box.

Finally he located a large flat, piece of metal that would be sufficient, and returned to his task.

Moments later, he pulled the lid off with a grunt, revealing to him a sight he would never forget.

"God Dean."he whispered, taking in his brothers blood covered, unmoving form, the dirt and dust on his face standing out against its colorless background, lines of what had surely been tears easily made out on his cheeks, and how his arm was wrapped tightly around the shoulders of the little girl who was in the ..the customized _coffin_ with him.

"Sam?"he heard his father question worriedly, but when he still didn't move, it was repeated, this time with much more force and insistence behind it."SAM! Talk to me!"

"Yeah, he's umm..."Sam replied, now over the initial shock and kneeling down towards his brother.

"Hey."he said, when meeting the intense stare of the little girl."You okay?"

"Yep, I'm fine Sam, but Dean's not, so don't worry bout me." she replied with a smile, which even with the situation, Sam couldn't help but return.

After reaching out and touching Dean's clammy face, he then , with a feeling of trepidation, checked him for a pulse, letting out a pent of sigh of relief when he found a very faint, weak one beating beneath his fingers.

"Sam?"

"He's, h's still alive, barely, but still alive."Sam replied, blinking repeatedly to try and keep the tears of happiness that his brother was still alive, and also of anger and hatred for the man who'd done this to him, he felt trying to escape at bay.

He reached down to lift the girl out first so he could better get to his brother, but before she would allow it, she had to give Dean's cheek a kiss, and whisper in his ear,"I told you they would come."

After he got her out, and asked if she was able to stand, she said yes, then pointed impatiently at Dean and said,"Now would you mind getting my friend out of there Sam?"

"My pleasure."he replied, automatically liking the little girls spunky attitude, and leaned over and lifted his brother from within the small confines of the box.

Dean made only one noise, which was something between an whimper and moan, then amazingly opened his eyes and looked up at Sam, squinting his eyes to make sure he wasn't imagining it, and whispered,"S-sammy?"

"Yeah, its me Dean. Dad's here too, so you're safe now."Sam replied, and with a little sigh, Dean's eyes closed once more, a hint of a smile playing at his blue tinged lips.

"Sammy, get your brother out of here now."John, who'd gotten his first good look at his eldest son seconds earlier, ordered his youngest through anger gritted teeth.

"What about you dad? Aren't you coming?"Sam asked, reluctant to leave his dad alone with the madman.

"Oh I'll be right behind you, I just have to take care of something first."he replied, not taking his eyes off of the man who his gun was pointed at.

"Dad, you can't..."he started to protest, but looking down at his brother cradled in his arms pallid face, and feeling a hitch in his throat, he stopped himself mid-sentence, and nodded his head at his father, then started out the doorway.

The bastard deserved whatever he got.

The little girl followed closely behind, but stopped once, turned and looked at the man and John, and said calmly,"It's the right thing to do mister, cause if he ever got out, he'd do it again. I can feel it." then giving him a solemn look, continued out the door.

John, briefly wondered where the hell Barney and the Mayberry police force were, but only briefly, as he reached out, closed the door that had been unlocked as he and Sam entered, and clicked the deadbolt into place, then gave his full attention to the man standing with his hands still behind his head.

"What's your name you psycho fuck?"he asked.

"Bozo."the man replied with a smug grin.

"If I were you, I'd be a little more respectable towards the man with the gun shitface. So I'm going to ask you one more time, what's your name?"John growled at the man.

"Okay, I'll play your game. It's Bill, and what may I ask is your name officer?"

"First of all _Bill_, I'm the one asking the questions here, not you. Secondly, you have exactly 2 minutes to convince me as to why I shouldn't kill you right here and now, starting with telling me why you did this."

"Why I did it? Well..hmm...that's easy, every single one of those assholes wronged me! And they got what they deserved!" he replied defiantly, not the least bit bothered by John's threats, after all he was a cop, and he couldn't shoot an unarmed man, so why not have a last little bit of fun before he hit the old prison block.

"Really Bill? Well, what did that little girl do to wrong you? She's what? 9 at the most? And Dean, what did he do to you? Seeing as how he's only been in town for a month is it?"John asked, trying to keep his voice calm as he awaited the pounding on the locked door that was sure to come when the officers reached it. Where the hell were they anyway?

"The girl I took to get back at her parents, because we all know that the best way to get at someone is by killing their kid."

"And Dean?"John asked once again, feeling his trigger finger tensing.

"Oh _him_, well he was just a nosy little fucker who put his nose into things that were no business of his own. I was going to get the younger kid with him, which hey, wasn't that him in here earlier?"he asked, but shrugged seconds later, not really giving a crap as he continued," It was really a last minute choice to include Dean, but boy was it worth it. Making him kill that kid, it was _priceless_, and I really count him as a successful fatality, cause did you get a look at him copper? All that blood? He's been leaking that for days, so I'm thinking he ain't gonna make it."the man replied with a self satisfied look on his face.

"Bill, I've spent the last 20 years of my life hunting and destroying all sorts of evil, but none of them, not _one_, hold a candle to you, and because of that, I'm going to feel no remorse for what I'm about to do ."

"Humph. You can't kill me, you're a cop, and it's a law that I get a fair trial. A law that you can't break."Bill said with a confident smile.

"Oh no, I'm not a cop at all Bill, I'm something much, much worse. As you said yourself, the best way to get to a parent is to kill their kid, and see, I'm that boy who you had locked in that box's father."

Bills eyes widened, and he put his hands up in a gesture of surrender, saying,"I deserve a fair trial! You'll go to jail for murder!"

Solemnly, John pulled the trigger, shooting him right between the eyes, and saying as his body fell to the floor,"The verdict is in and you're guilty." then threw his gun to the floor, walked over and opened the door that the officers had finally reached and had been pounding on for the last minute or so, and walked past them, not even looking at the shocked faces of the others as they took in the sight that met their eyes from within the room.

All that mattered to John was getting to his boys, nothing else...

TBC

One chapter to go, and don't worry, I've already gotten it mostly finished so it will be up soon! I promise.

A few questions will be answered that I'm sure you're wondering about, such as what took the cops so darn long to catch up with Sam and John(lets say they had a little trouble along the way), how Dean is holding up, and if John is going to get in any type of trouble for what he did. That and much more! So hope you don't hold the way tooo looooong wait between the last update against me:-( R&R!!


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